Andy Warhol Works Are Fair Use of Prince Photograph, Court Says

A series of Andy Warhol works based on a photograph of Prince didn’t infringe the photographer’s copyright, the Southern District of New York said July 1.

Warhol’s works were protected under the doctrine of fair use because they transformed Lynn Goldsmith’s photo, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said.

In 1981, photographer Lynn Goldsmith photographed the rock musician in her New York City studio for Newsweek. In 1984, Vanity Fair licensed one of the pictures and commissioned Andy Warhol to create an illustration based on it for an article about Prince.

Warhol later made a ...