Court won’t overturn Rasta pictures decision

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court won’t hear an appeal from a photographer who said that painter Richard Prince violated his copyrights with paintings and collages based on the photographer’s published works.

The high court on Tuesday refused to hear an appeal from Patrick Cariou, who said Prince used pictures that were taken by Cariou for his book “Yes, Rasta.”

Cariou took the pictures during six years he lived with Rastafarians in Jamaica. Prince altered and incorporated several of the photographs in a series of paintings and collages titled “Canal Zone,” exhibited in 2007 and 2008.

But the federal courts said Prince transformed most of the pictures enough so that Prince’s art could be considered a “fair use” of Cariou’s work. The Supreme Court refused to reconsider that decision.