Law Commons^™

Reasonable Appropriation And Reader Response, Laura A. Heymann

Faculty Publications

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., many courts have considered, when evaluating a claim of fair use in copyright, whether the defendant’s use of the plaintiff’s work is “transformative,” which the Campbell Court described as “add[ing] something new, with a further purpose or different character, altering the first with new expression, meaning, or message.”

In Cariou v. Prince, the Second Circuit shifted the focus of the analysis, both confirming that a work could be transformative even if it did not comment on the original work or its author and stating that the key to …