Warhol-Prince Top Court Case Evokes Laughs, Copyright Debate (1)

A copyright clash over Andy Warhol’s celebrity images drew the US Supreme Court into a spirited and at times laugh-inducing debate involving Steven Spielberg, “Lord of the Rings” and Justice Clarence Thomas’s years as a Prince fan.

Hearing arguments in Washington, the justices grappled with a photographer’s claim that Warhol violated her copyright by basing his images on her 1981 portrait of Prince. The case could reshape the fair-use defense to copyright infringement for follow-on works, affecting music, videos and books, as well as Warhol’s pop art.

The 102-minute argument didn’t clearly indicate which way the court ...