Article Discusses Copyright 'Plagiarist Privilege'
COJK clerk Matt Ruppel and Leron Vandsburger, associate IP counsel at Thermo Fisher Scientific, co-authored the article, “Warhol Foundation Doesn’t Benefit From ‘Plagiarist Privilege’” which discusses the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith. The Court’s decision clarified the scope of the fair-use defense for appropriation by connecting transformative use with the determination whether the new use served a purpose distinct from the original use. In other words, ”The stated or perceived intent of the artist or the meaning or impression that an audience draws from the work, in the Court’s reasoning, cannot be determinative of whether a use is ‘transformative’ or any alteration would be transformative.” The article notes, “The Court also rejected the notion that a new meaning or message makes the use transformative in the fair use sense.” The article was published in the July 3, 2023 issue of the Washington State Bar Association's NWSideBar.
