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12  ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR VISUAL ARTS, INC. 

v. GOLDSMITH 
Opinion of the Court 

issue” was “the Foundation’s commercial licensing” of im-
ages of the Prince Series.  Id., at 55. 

This Court granted certiorari.  596 U. S. ___ (2022). 

II 

AWF  does  not  challenge  the  Court  of  Appeals’  holding 
that Goldsmith’s photograph and the Prince Series works
are  substantially  similar.    The  question  here  is  whether 
AWF can defend against a claim of copyright infringement 
because it made “fair use” of Goldsmith’s photograph.  17 
U. S. C. §107.

Although the Court of Appeals analyzed each fair use fac-
tor, the only question before this Court is whether the court
below correctly held that the first factor, “the purpose and
character of the use, including whether such use is of a com-
mercial  nature  or  is  for  nonprofit  educational  purposes,”
§107(1), weighs in Goldsmith’s favor.  AWF contends that 
the Prince Series works are “transformative,” and that the 
first factor therefore weighs in its favor, because the works 
convey  a  different  meaning  or  message  than  the  photo-
graph.  Brief for Petitioner 33.  The Court of Appeals erred, 
according to AWF, by not considering that new expression. 
Id., at 47–48. 

But the first fair use factor instead focuses on whether an 
allegedly infringing use has a further purpose or different 
character,  which  is  a  matter  of  degree,  and  the  degree  of 
difference  must  be  weighed  against  other  considerations, 
like  commercialism.  Campbell  v.  Acuff-Rose  Music,  Inc., 
510 U. S. 569, 579 (1994).  Although new expression may be
relevant to whether a copying use has a sufficiently distinct 
purpose or character, it is not, without more, dispositive of 
the first factor. 

Here, the specific use of Goldsmith’s photograph alleged 
to  infringe  her  copyright  is  AWF’s  licensing  of  Orange
Prince to Condé Nast.  As portraits of Prince used to depict