Supreme Court Limits Transformative Use Standard In Warhol Foundation V. Goldsmith

The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in the latest art appropriation dispute likely has artists everywhere concerned that their works may be subject to future litigation. The highest court in the nation has found that the licensing of an Andy Warhol artwork, derived from a photograph taken in 1981 by photographer Lynn Goldsmith, was not fair use under the Copyright Act.

Background
In 1984, Vanity Fair obtained a single-use license for Goldsmith's photograph of Prince to be used as an artistic reference for an illustration to an article on Prince called "Purple Fame," which the magazine published that year. Andy Warhol was commissioned to create the orange silk-screen illustration. Unbeknownst to Goldsmith, he created 15 other works, called the "Prince Series."