The Andy Warhol Foundation produced a major legal setback on Friday.
An appeals court reversed a case the foundation had previously won over a series of images of Prince of Warhol.
In 2017, the Warhol Foundation sued famed rock photographer Lynn Goldsmith after it notified the foundation of a possible copyright issue stemming from a photo of the prince he took in the 1980s. Warhol allegedly used the image to inspire a series of screen-printed works of art.
The foundation sued Goldsmith for arguing that Prince Warhol’s photographs were under the law of legitimate use. Goldsmith dismissed, but his case was dismissed in federal court.
But on Friday, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that: “We conclude that the district court erred in its assessment and application of the factors of legitimate use and that the works in question do not qualify as to fair use as a matter of law. ”The sentence added:“ Likewise, we conclude that [Warhol’s Prince works] they are substantially similar to goldsmithing photography as a matter of law ”.
With the decision reversed, Goldsmith’s case can continue once again.
In 1981 Goldsmith photographed the next artist Prince in his studio.
Friday’s ruling even revealed some behind-the-scenes details of the filming: “Prince, who Goldsmith said seemed nervous and uncomfortable, retired to the green room shortly after the session began and finally left without allowing Goldsmith to do anything. additional photography. During the truncated session, Goldsmith took 23 photographs, 12 in black and white and 11 in color. Goldsmith retained the copyright for each of the photographs he took. “
In 1984, the Goldsmith agency licensed one of Prince’s photographs to Vanity Fair as an “artist reference” for an unnamed artist to discuss. Goldsmith was unaware that the artist at the time was Warhol, who allegedly “did not stop with the image Vanity Fair had commissioned him to create, but created fifteen additional works, which together became known as the Prince series,” according to Friday. decision.
The image of Warhol appeared in Vanity Fair in the November 1984 issue with a credit to Goldsmith as a photographer, but Goldsmith never saw it and only noticed the image of Warhol – or the Prince series – after the death of Prince in 2016.
When the prince died, Vanity Fair asked the Warhol Foundation to publish the same image of its 1984 article, “Purple Fame,” according to court papers. The image was republished, but without credit to Goldsmith, and only to the foundation.
Judicial papers state that, “Between 1993 and 2004, [the Warhol Foundation] sold or transferred custody of 12 of the original works in the Prince series to third parties, and in 1998 transferred custody of the other four works to the Andy Warhol Museum. ”
Warhol’s rights arm also “continues to license the images for editorial, commercial and museum use.”
It looks like now the legal show will continue for the Prince series. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the new ruling could be well received by some in the entertainment business in their own legal battles.
Warhol died in 1987 at the age of 58.