Artist Richard Prince Infringed Photographer’s Works; No Fair Use

• Case Summary:
  A district court granted a photographer’s copyright infringement summary judgment motion against an artist who took his photographs to make art works. The court rejected the artist’s claim of fair use.
• Key Takeaway:
  An artist’s use of a photographer’s “highly original” works was not fair use as it was only minimally transformative, substantially commercial, substantially greater than necessary, and it unfairly damaged the original market for the photos.

An artist’s use of a photographer’s works in a book about Rastafarians was not a transformative fair use, and was thus infringing, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District ...