Names in the news, May 19, 2023

Warhol violated copyright, Supreme

Court rules

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of a photographer who claimed the late Andy Warhol had violated her copyright on a photograph of the singer Prince.

“Lynn Goldsmith’s original works, like those of other photographers, are entitled to copyright protection, even against famous artists,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in an opinion joined by six of her colleagues.

The case involved images Warhol created of Prince as part of a 1984 commission for Vanity Fair. Warhol used one of Goldsmith’s photos as a starting point, a so-called artist reference, and Vanity Fair paid Goldsmith to license the photo. Warhol then created a series of images in his signature style.

Vanity Fair chose one of the images — Prince with a purple face — to run in the magazine. The magazine ran another image from the series on its cover following Prince’s 2016 death. It was that second use that the justices dealt with in the case.

Lawyers for Warhol’s foundation had argued that the artist had transformed the photograph and there was no violation of copyright law. But a majority of the justices said a lower court had correctly sided with Goldsmith.

Queen Elizabeth II’s

funeral cost $200 million

Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral and lying-in-state last year cost Britain’s government an estimated 162 million pounds (around $200 million), the treasury revealed Thursday.

The state funeral for the late monarch, held on Sept. 19, was the first in the U.K. since that of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1965.

The occasion, attended by world leaders and dignitaries, followed 10 days of national mourning after the queen died at age 96 on Sept. 8 after 70 years on the throne.

Associated Press