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14  ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR VISUAL ARTS, INC. 

v. GOLDSMITH 
Opinion of the Court 

the  common-law  doctrine  of  fair  use  in  §107,  which  pro-
vides: “[T]he fair use of a copyrighted work, . . . for purposes
such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching . . . , 
scholarship,  or  research,  is  not  an  infringement  of  copy- 
right.”  To determine whether a particular use is “fair,” the
statute sets out four factors to be considered: 

“(1) the purpose and character of the use, including 
whether  such  use  is  of  a  commercial  nature  or  is  for 
nonprofit educational purposes;

“(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
“(3)  the  amount  and  substantiality  of  the  portion 
used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and 
“(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market

for or value of the copyrighted work.” 

The fair use doctrine “permits courts to avoid rigid appli-
cation of the copyright statute when, on occasion, it would 
stifle the very creativity which that law is designed to fos-
ter.”  Stewart v. Abend, 495 U. S. 207, 236 (1990) (internal
quotation marks omitted).  The Act’s fair use provision, in 
turn,  “set[s]  forth  general  principles,  the  application  of 
which requires judicial balancing, depending upon relevant 
circumstances.”    Google  LLC  v.  Oracle  America,  Inc.,  593 
U. S. ___, ___ (2021) (slip op., at 14).  Because those princi-
ples  apply  across  a  wide  range  of  copyrightable  material, 
from books to photographs to software, fair use is a “flexi-
ble” concept, and “its application may well vary depending
on  context.”  Id.,  at  ___  (slip  op.,  at  15).  For  example,  in 
applying the fair use provision, “copyright’s protection may 
be  stronger  where  the  copyrighted  material  . . .  serves  an 
artistic rather than a utilitarian function.”  Ibid. 

1 
The first fair use factor is “the purpose and character of
the use, including whether such use is of a commercial na-
ture or is for nonprofit educational purposes.”  §107(1).  This