COURT RULES AGAINST WARHOL FOUNDATION

The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with a photographer who claimed that Andy Warhol should have honored her copyright on a photo of Prince when creating an image of the singer.

In a 7-2 decision, the justices upheld the power of copyrights and mostly rejected the claim that artists and others may freely use original works if they transform them into something new and different.

“Lynn Goldsmith’s original works, like those of other photographers, are entitled to copyright protection, even against famous artists,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the court majority.

In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, wrote that the decision “will stifle creativity of every sort.”

“It will impede new art and music and literature,” she wrote. “It will thwart the expression of new ideas and the attainment of new knowledge. It will make our world poorer.”

The justices were considering whether Warhol, who died in 1987, violated copyright law by selling to Vanity Fair magazine an illustration based on a silk-screen portrait of Prince. The image was derived from a photo of the musician by Lynn Goldsmith, but used without her permission, credit or payment. A federal district judge in New York said Warhol’s work created something new, a transformation within the “fair use” exception to the law.

But the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Goldsmith could press her claim and warned that judges should stay in their lanes.

“The district judge should not assume the role of art critic and seek to ascertain the intent behind or meaning of the works at issue,” the court said. “That is so both because judges are typically unsuited to make aesthetic judgments and because such perceptions are inherently subjective.”

Goldsmith took the portrait of Prince in the early 1980s. Vanity Fair commissioned Warhol to create an illustration for a 1984 article on Prince and obtained a license from Goldsmith, paying her $400 to use the photo as an artistic reference for Warhol.

He changed certain aspects of the photo and created for the magazine what is now called “Purple Fame.” He also created the 16 silkscreens.

When Prince died in 2016, Vanity Fair’s parent company Condé Nast paid more than $10,000 to the Warhol Foundation for another version, Orange Prince, to illustrate a commemorative magazine. Goldsmith, who was not paid, sued.