court is in the best position to determine fair use as to some paintings, why is the same not true as to all paintings? Certainly we are not merely to use our personal art views to make the new legal application to the facts of this case. Cf. Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., 510 U.S. 569, 582, 114 S.Ct. 1164, 127 L.Ed.2d 500 (1994) (“ ‘[I]t would be a dangerous undertaking for persons trained only to the law to constitute themselves final judges of the worth of [a work], outside of the narrowest and most obvious limits’ ”), quoting Bleistein v. Donaldson Lithographing Co., 188 U.S. 289, 251, 23 S.Ct. 298, 47 L.Ed. 460 (1903). It would be extremely uncomfortable for me to do so in my appellate capacity, let alone my limited art experience.
In my view, because the district court takes the primary role in determining the facts and applying the law to the facts in fair use cases, after which we exercise our appellate review if called upon to do so, I conclude that as to each painting, “the district court is best situated to determine, in the first instance,” whether Prince is entitled to a fair use defense in light of the correct legal standard. See majority opinion at 711–12. I mean no disrespect to the majority, but I, for one, do not believe that I am in a position to make these fact- and opinion-intensive decisions on the twenty-five works that passed the majority’s judicial observation. I do not know what additional facts will become relevant under the corrected rule of law, nor am I trained to make art opinions ab initio.
I would thus remand the entire case—all thirty of Prince’s paintings—for further proceedings in the district court on an open record to take such additional testimony as needed and apply the correct legal standard. On this basis, therefore, I respectfully dissent.
MAGI XXI, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
STATO DELLA CITTÀ DEL VATICANO a/k/a The Holy See, Defendant-Appellee,
Gerald P. Colapinto, Second Renaissance, LLC, Defendants.[* 1]
Docket No. 12-568-cv.
United States Court of Appeals,
Second Circuit.
Argued: Feb. 21, 2013.
Decided: April 30, 2013.
- ↑ *The Clerk of the Court is directed to amend the official caption to conform to the above.
