''Cariou v. Prince'', 714 F.3d 694 (2d Cir. 2013) is a copyright case in the

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory comprises the states of Connecticut, New York and Vermont. The court has appellate juri ...

, on the question of whether artist

Richard Prince Richard Prince (born 1949) is an American painter and photographer. In the mid-1970s, Prince made drawings and painterly collages that he has since disowned. His image, ''Untitled (Cowboy)'', a rephotographing of a photograph by Sam Abell and ...

appropriation art Appropriation in art is the use of pre-existing objects or images with little or no transformation applied to them. The use of appropriation has played a significant role in the history of the arts (literary, visual, musical and performing arts) ...

treatment of Patrick Cariou's photographs was a copyright infringement or a

fair use Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests ...

. The Second Circuit held in 2013 that Prince's appropriation art ''could'' constitute fair use, and that a number of his works were transformative fair uses of Cariou's photographs. The Court remanded to the

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a United States district court, federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York (state), New York ...

for reconsideration of five of Prince's works. The Supreme Court denied Cariou's petition for a

writ of certiorari In law, ''certiorari'' is a court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency. ''Certiorari'' comes from the name of an English prerogative writ, issued by a superior court to direct that the record of ...

, and the case settled in 2014.Brian Boucher
"Landmark Copyright Lawsuit Cariou v. Prince Is Settled"
''

Art in America ''Art in America'' is an illustrated monthly, international magazine concentrating on the contemporary art world in the United States, including profiles of artists and genres, updates about art movements, show reviews and event schedules. It i ...

'', March 18, 2014.

Background

Photographer Patrick Cariou published in 2000 ''Yes, Rasta'' a book of black and white photographs of the

Rastafarian Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control ...

community in Jamaica. Richard Prince in 2008 created ''Canal Zone'', a series of art works incorporating Cariou's photographs. Prince's works involved copying the original photographs and engaging in a variety of transformations. These included printing them, increasing them in size, blurring or sharpening, adding content (sometimes in color), and sometimes compositing multiple photographs together or with other works. Prince exhibited his collection at

Gagosian Gallery Gagosian is a contemporary art gallery owned and directed by Larry Gagosian. The gallery exhibits some of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. There are 16 gallery spaces: five in New York City; three in London; two in Par ...

in New York as

. In 2009, Cariou filed a copyright infringement suit against Richard Prince, as well as Gagosian Gallery, Larry Gagosian (the founder and owner of the gallery), and

RCS MediaGroup RCS MediaGroup S.p.A. (formerly Rizzoli-Corriere della Sera), based in Milan and listed on the Italian Stock Exchange, is an international multimedia publishing group that operates in daily newspapers, magazines and books, radio broadcasting, ne ...

(which printed the exhibit catalog).

Findings

The

Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York State. Two of these are in New York City: New ...

(SDNY), in March 2011, held that Prince's works were infringing. At that point, the ''Cariou v. Prince'' case received significant attention, because the SDNY ordered that Prince's unsold works, and Rizzoli's catalogs, be impounded and destroyed. The SDNY found that the works were not transformative, in part because Richard Prince did not claim to be "commenting upon" the original works. Prince, whose works often sell in galleries for many thousands of dollars, appealed to the Second Circuit. The case was of high interest to the art world, which largely favored Prince's position,See, e.g., the amicus brief submitted by the Warhol Foundation and the

Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combine painting, Combines (1954–1964), a ...

, which sided with Prince. (Brief, October 2013). and to the photographic community, which largely favored Cariou's position. In April 2013, the Second Circuit reversed the SDNY's decision, finding that most of Prince's works were indeed "transformative" to a "reasonable observer" and therefore fair use. In particular, the Court found that the lower court erred in requiring that the appropriating artist claim to be commenting on the original work, and found works to be transformative if they presented a new aesthetic. The court found 25 of 30 works to be transformative fair use under its standard, and remanded the case to the lower court for reconsideration of 5 of the works under the Second Circuit's new standard. On March 18, 2014, Cariou and Prince announced that they had settled the case.

Notes

External links

{{caselaw source , case = ''Cariou v. Prince'', 714 F. 3d 694 (2d Cir. 2013) , cornell = , courtlistener = , findlaw = , justia =http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca2/11-1197/11-1197-2013-04-25.html , oyez = , vlex = , other_source1 = Google Scholar , other_url1 =https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5845890683658306826 , other_source2 = Harvard , other_url2 =https://cyber.harvard.edu/people/tfisher/cx/2013_Cariou.pdf , other_source3 = , other_url3 = , other_source4 = , other_url4 = , other_source5 = , other_url5 = , other_source6 = , other_url6 = , other_source7 = , other_url7 = , other_source8 = , other_url8 = , other_source9 = , other_url9 = 2013 in United States case law United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit cases United States copyright case law Fair use case law Photography in the United States

Background

Findings

Notes

Further reading

External links