Supreme Court rules against Andy Warhol's estate in copyright dispute over Prince image

Washington  — The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with rock-and-roll photographer Lynn Goldsmith in her dispute with the Andy Warhol Foundation over the late artist's use of her 1981 photo of Prince as the basis for a silkscreen image, finding Warhol infringed on the copyright.

The court split 7-2 in its decision, with Justice Elena Kagan and Chief Justice John Roberts in dissent. In a majority opinion written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court held that the "purpose and character" of the Andy Warhol Foundation's use of Goldsmith's photograph in commercially licensing the image known as "Orange Prince" does not favor the foundation's fair use defense to copyright infringement.

"It will not impoverish our world to require AWF to pay Goldsmith a fraction of the proceeds from its reuse of her copyrighted work," Sotomayor wrote in an opinion that featured photographs of Prince and Warhol's work. "Recall, payments like these are incentives for artists to create original works in the first place. Nor will the Court's decision, which is consistent with longstanding principles of fair use, snuff out the light of Western civilization, returning us to the Dark Ages of a world without Titian, Shakespeare, or Richard Rodgers."