A Comprehensive Review of Post-Warhol Appellate Decisions on the First Factor

By Yuanxiao Xu | February 24, 2026

Teaching fair use, one neighborhood cat at a time. A CC0 photo the author took while on a break from writing this blog post.

Check out our series of posts marking the 50th anniversary of the Copyright Act of 1976, as well as a variety of other Fair Use Week blogs and events around the country. 

I. Warhol felt like a big deal

Warhol v. Goldsmith (2023) marked the very first time the Supreme Court opined exclusively on a SINGLE fair use factor. Considering the importance of fair use under US copyright law, it is also surprising for many casual observers that Warhol represents one of only three instances in which the Supreme Court took up fair use in the last 35 years (the other two being Campbell v. Acuff-Rose (1994) and Google v. Oracle (2021)).

Read the full A Comprehensive Review of Post-Warhol Appellate Decisions on the First Factor blog post