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2d Cir. Issues Two Notable Copyright Fair Use Decisions

By Tom McParland
May 01, 2021

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently issued decisions in two closely watched copyright fair use cases involving photographs. In the first, the Second Circuit decided that Andy Warhol did not make fair use of a photographer's copyrighted image of the iconic musician Prince, in a ruling that fine-tuned that court's precedent relating to "transformative" works and cautioned trial judges to refrain from the role of art critic.

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Warhol's Prince Series

The ruling in The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc. v. Goldsmith, 19-2420 (2d Cir. 2021), from a three-judge panel of the Manhattan-based appeals court, reversed a trial court decision in finding that Warhol's famous series of 16 silkscreen works had infringed Lynn Goldsmith's copyright for her 1981 photograph portraying Prince in black and white.

The case garnered significant interest for its possible effect on thousands of Warhol works that the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts had licensed across the globe. A Southern District of New York federal judge ruled in 2019 that Warhol's artwork had transformed Goldsmith's original photograph by shifting the perception of Prince from a "vulnerable human being" into an "iconic, larger-than-life figure."

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