Cases & Developments

Opinion affirming judgment in favor of the Respondent. In 1984, Lynn Goldsmith licensed a photograph of Prince to the magazine Vanity Fair for a one-time use as an “artist reference for an illustration.” Andy Warhol then produced an image for the magazine and 15 others for a series of images. After Prince’s death, the Andy Warhol Foundation (AWF) licensed one of the images in the series to Condé Nast for a magazine cover. Goldstein informed AWF that she believed the use infringed her copyright. AWF sued for a declaratory judgment of noninfringement or fair use, and Goldsmith counterclaimed for infringement. The district court awarded summary judgment to AWF, the Second Circuit reversed, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed. In an opinion focused on the question of “whether the first fair use factor, ‘the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes,’” the majority found that “Goldsmith’s original photograph of Prince, and AWF’s copying use of that photograph in an image licensed to a special edition magazine devoted to Prince, share substantially the same purpose, and the use is of a commercial nature.”