High Court’s Tricky Task in Warhol Case Carries Big Implications

The U.S. Supreme Court will face the challenge of crafting objective guidance for answering a subjective question about fair use as it weighs whether an Andy Warhol print infringes a photo of Prince.

Whatever the justices decide will have far-reaching implications not just for photographers and conceptual artists in Warhol’s mold but for creators of all stripes. The court’s first non-software fair use decision since 1994 could shape copyright case law for decades, indicating just how far secondary users must go to feel secure that they sufficiently altered an existing work they used.

Attorneys and academics hope for direction leading ...