Copyright dispute battle of photographer Lynn Gold Smith against Andy Warhol

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Copyright dispute battle of photographer Lynn Gold Smith against Andy Warhol

By Tanushka Joshi

One of photographer Lynn Goldsmith’s portray of Prince was licensed by the Vanity Fair in the  year 1984. Vanity Fair did not inform Goldsmith about her photo that was being used by American artist, Andy Warhol as a reference for the article. Later on, Goldsmith went on to discover that Warhol had created 15 more artworks based on her photo called ‘Prince Series’ after the cover was published. In the year 2016, Goldsmith registered her Prince’s photo with the copyright office as an unpublished work.

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A facebook post by Goldsmith in which she shared her disappointment regarding the misuse of her artwork prompted AWF (Andy Warhol Foundation) to launch a ‘preemptive strike’ against Goldsmith suing her before she moves to court for the copyright infringement lawsuit. Goldsmith went ahead and appealed against the judgment which declared Warhol’s work as fair use. The 2nd Circuit Panel while passing judgment in favor of Goldsmith, cautioned the judges against making inherently subjective remarks and suggested them to try and seek the intent behind the artwork instead of assuming the role of artwork connoisseur.

By Tanushka Joshi