Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-869_87ad.pdf
Page Number: 9

Cite as:  598 U. S. ____ (2023) 

3 

Opinion of the Court 

a self-starter.  She quickly became “a leading rock photog-
rapher” in an era “when women on the scene were largely
dismissed as groupies.”  Ibid. 

In  1981,  Goldsmith  convinced  Newsweek  magazine  to 
hire her to photograph Prince Rogers Nelson, then an “up
and  coming”  and  “hot  young  musician.”    2  App.  315.
Newsweek agreed, and Goldsmith took photos of Prince in 
concert at the Palladium in New York City and in her studio 
on West 36th Street.  Newsweek ran one of the concert pho-
tos, together with an article titled “ ‘The Naughty Prince of 
Rock.’ ”  Id., at 320.  Goldsmith retained the other photos. 
She holds copyright in all of them. 

One of Goldsmith’s studio photographs, a black and white
portrait of Prince, is the original copyrighted work at issue 
in this case.  See fig. 1, infra. 

In  1984,  Goldsmith,  through  her  agency,  licensed  that
photograph to Vanity Fair to serve as an “artist reference 
for an illustration” in the magazine.  1 App. 85.  The terms 
of the license were that the illustration was “to be published 
in  Vanity  Fair  November  1984  issue.    It  can  appear  one 
time  full  page  and  one  time  under  one  quarter  page.  No 
other usage right granted.”  Ibid.  Goldsmith was to receive 
$400 and a source credit. 

To  make  the  illustration,  Vanity  Fair  hired  pop  artist
Andy Warhol.  Warhol was already a major figure in Amer-
ican art, known among other things for his silkscreen por-
traits of celebrities.1  From Goldsmith’s photograph, Warhol 

—————— 

1 A silkscreen is a fine mesh fabric used in screen printing.  Warhol’s 
practice was to deliver a photograph to a professional silkscreen printer
with instructions for alterations, such as cropping and high contrasting.
1 App. 160, 163.  The latter alteration would “flatten” the image.  Once 
Warhol approved, the printer would “reproduc[e]” the altered image “like 
a photographic negative onto the screen.”  Id., at 164.  For canvas prints,
Warhol “would then place the screen face down on the canvas, pour ink 
onto the back of the mesh, and use a squeegee to pull the ink through the
weave and onto the canvas.”  Ibid.  The resulting “high-contrast half-tone