Andy Warhol Fdn. for the Visual Arts Inc v. Goldsmith (2021) Case Brief Summary | Law Case Explained

Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith, 992 F.3d 99 (2021)

We know the fair-use doctrine allows certain uses of copyrighted work without the copyright holder’s permission, but how do courts evaluate whether a secondary work of art constitutes fair use versus infringement? The high-profile case of Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Incorporated versus Goldsmith examines this question in the context of two iconic artists.

In 1981, photographer Lynn Goldsmith was hired to shoot an up-and-coming musician at the time, Prince. To highlight Prince’s chiseled bone structure and accentuate his sensuality, Goldsmith adjusted her studio lighting and applied additional makeup to his face. Goldsmith took 23 portraits of Prince and retained copyright in all of them.

Prince’s popularity later skyrocketed, and Goldsmith licensed one of the photos to Vanity Fair to be used as an artistic reference. Although Goldsmith didn’t know it at the time, Andy Warhol was the artist for whom the magazine licensed the photo; it commissioned Warhol to create one work based on the photo, though Warhol ended up creating 16, 14 high-contrast silk screenprints and two pencil illustrations, which collectively came to be known as the Prince Series. Vanity Fair published one of them under Warhol’s name and included a small credit to Goldsmith.

In 1987, Warhol died, and the Andy Warhol Foundation came to hold copyright in the Prince Series.

In 2016, after Prince’s untimely death, Vanity Fair’s parent company Condé Nast sought to use one of the Prince Series works in its tribute issue. The company paid the foundation a little over ten thousand dollars for a commercial license to use the Warhol work on its cover. The magazine credited the foundation, but not Goldsmith. Shortly thereafter, Goldsmith contacted the foundation regarding the potential copyright violation.

The foundation then sued Goldsmith in district court, seeking a declaratory judgment that the Prince Series’s use of Goldsmith’s photo constituted fair use. The court agreed, finding that Warhol’s secondary works were transformative, and entered summary judgment for the foundation. Goldsmith appealed.

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