The appeal in the case of Cariou v. Prince is shaping up to be the biggest visual arts copyright case in many years. It will likely result in guidance on what qualifies as a transformative use for appropriation art under the doctrine of fair use. Appropriation art "borrows" pre-existing works or images of the creative work of another artist in order to create something new and original. While this alone may seemed packed with copyright issues, it is generally not an appropriation artist's intent to "rip off" another artist's work. Usually, the success of the new work depends on the viewer's recognition of the underlying work; the "aha" moment is the connection between the old and the new as the viewer recognizes the original work or that another work has been taken, and differentiates the creative changes that have been made in the new work.

Patrick Cariou, a professional photographer, spent six years photographing Rastafarians in Jamaica. He then complied those photographs as a book titled Yes, Rasta, released in 2000 by PowerHouse Press. Several years later, in 2007, well-know appropriation artist, Richard Prince, showed his work titled "Canal Zone" at an exhibit in St. Barths. "Canal Zone" depicted a collage of photographs of the Rastafarian people overlaid with brightly colored paints and other images such as guitars, enlarged hands and naked women. Some people depicted in Prince's collages were from the photographs taken from Cariou's Yes, Rasta. Following the success of "Canal Zone," Prince created an entire show consisting of 29 painting, 28 of which had photos taken from the Cariou book. The works were shown at the Gagosian Gallery which heavily marketed the exhibition and the interest resulted in the sale of 8 works.

Cariou sued Prince and Gagosian Gallery for copyright infringement. Prince, in reply, claimed fair use. Fair use is an exception to infringement, built into the Copyright Act. It allows use of the work of another for certain public policy purposes. The New York trial court found that fair use was not available to Prince for these works because, said the court, the use was for a commercial purpose and "Canal Zone" was more of a derivative work of Cariou's photographs than a new and transformative work because Prince changed little from Cariou's underlying work. When asked the meaning behind the work, Prince stated that it doesn't "really have a message" and that his intent in creating the work was to pay homage to other artists. The court found Prince liable for copyright infringement and ordered him to deliver all of his paintings containing Cariou's photographs for impoundment or destruction. Gagosian Gallery was found to be acting in bad faith by not confirming that Prince had a license to use the photos because, reasoned the court, Prince was well known for using the works of others without their permission.

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