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28  ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR VISUAL ARTS, INC. 

v. GOLDSMITH 
Opinion of the Court 

B 

AWF contends, however, that the purpose and character 
of its use of Goldsmith’s photograph weighs in favor of fair
use because Warhol’s silkscreen image of the photograph, 
like the Campbell’s Soup Cans series, has a new meaning 
or  message.  The  District  Court,  for  example,  understood 
the  Prince  Series  works  to  portray  Prince  as  “an  iconic,
larger-than-life figure.”  382 F. Supp. 3d, at 326.  AWF also 
asserts that the works are a comment on celebrity.  In par-
ticular, “Warhol’s Prince Series conveys the dehumanizing
nature of celebrity.”  Brief for Petitioner 44.  According to
AWF, that new meaning or message, which the Court of Ap-
peals  ignored,  makes  the  use  “transformative”  in  the  fair 
use sense.  See id., at 44–48.  We disagree. 

1 

Campbell did describe a transformative use as one that 
“alter[s] the first [work] with new expression, meaning, or
message.”  510 U. S., at 579; see also Google, 593 U. S., at 
___  (slip  op.,  at  24).    That  description  paraphrased  Judge
Leval’s  law  review  article,  which  referred  to  “new  infor-
mation, new aesthetics, new insights and understandings.”
Leval  1111.   (Judge  Leval  contrasted  such  additions  with
secondary  uses  that  “merely  repackag[e]”  the  original. 
Ibid.)  But Campbell cannot be read to mean that §107(1)
weighs in favor of any use that adds some new expression, 
meaning, or message.

Otherwise, “transformative use” would swallow the copy-
right  owner’s  exclusive  right  to  prepare  derivative  works.
Many  derivative  works,  including  musical  arrangements,
film and stage adaptions, sequels, spinoffs, and others that 
“recast, transfor[m] or adap[t]” the original, §101, add new 
expression,  meaning  or  message,  or  provide  new  infor-
mation, new aesthetics, new insights and understandings.
That is an intractable problem for AWF’s interpretation of
transformative  use.    The  first  fair  use  factor  would  not