The Supreme Court sided with photographer Lynn Goldsmith in a case against the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Goldsmith, who photographed the musician Prince sued the foundation for copyright infringement after it licensed an image of Warhol's titled Orange Prince (based on Goldsmith's black-and-white image of the pop artist, above left) to Conde Nast in 2016 for use in its publication, Vanity Fair.
NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg described it this way when the Supreme Court heard the case in October:
At the center of the case is a black-and-white photo of Prince, taken by Goldsmith in 1981. Three years later, Vanity Fair magazine paid Goldsmith a licensing fee of $400 for a single use of the picture and then commissioned Warhol to create a Prince portrait, using the photo as a reference point. Warhol did that, and much more, creating 16 silkscreens. He copyrighted them all, and when Prince died, Vanity Fair's parent company paid Warhol roughly $10,000 so it could use the Orange Prince for a tribute cover.
(Warhol's 16 prints are above right.)
"Goldsmith's original works, like those of other photographers, are entitled to copyright protection, even against famous artists," wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her opinion. "Such protection includes the right to prepare derivative works that transform the original."
-- Dustin Jones, NPR Politics reporter | 
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