Prince, Andy Warhol, and Fair Use at the Supreme Court

When a work of art is created by using source material, does it qualify for the fair use exception to copyright infringement? The US Supreme Court will consider that issue on October 12 when it hears oral argument in Andy Warhol Foundation Inc. v Goldsmith. At issue, did Andy Warhol violate Lynn Goldsmith's copyright when he used her photo of Prince as a reference for a series of images that he created of the musician? It will be the first non-software fair use case to go before the court in decades, and has the potential to reshape the boundaries of what does and does not qualify for fair use.

In this video, we explain the Warhol case and what it could mean for the visual arts, and look at a key consideration, whether the use was transformative. Interviews include: Rebecca Tushnet, a professor of law at Harvard Law School and Kyle Jahner, an intellectual property reporter for Bloomberg Law. (Produced by Macarena Carrizosa; Senior Producer: Andrew Satter; Executive Producer: Josh Block)

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