Supreme Court Case on Warhol Images Evokes Laughs and a Copyright Debate
- Case could reshape legal rights for music, films and artwork
- Thomas was a Prince fan, Barrett cites ‘Lord of the Rings’
Justices of the US Supreme Court.
Photographer: Eric Lee/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
A copyright clash over Andy Warhol’s celebrity images drew the US Supreme Court into a spirited and at times laugh-inducing debate involving Steven Spielberg, “Lord of the Rings” and Justice Clarence Thomas’s years as a Prince fan.
Hearing arguments in Washington, the justices grappled with a photographer’s claim that Warhol violated her copyright by basing his images on her 1981 portrait of Prince. The case could reshape the fair-use defense to copyright infringement for follow-on works, affecting music, videos and books, as well as Warhol’s pop art.