French photographer Patrick Cariou has dropped his case against appropriation artist Richard Prince, who incorporated photos from Cariou’s 2000 book, Yes, Rasta, in his 2008 series “Canal Zone,” shown at Gagosian Gallery. The artists have reached an unspecified settlement out of court, and each will pay his own legal fees.
The landmark copyright infringement suit was first filed in 2009, when Cariou sued Prince, the gallery, dealer Larry Gagosian, and Rizzoli, who published the exhibition catalogue. A March 2011 ruling sided with the Frenchman, calling for the destruction of the remaining copies of the catalogue and the unsold “Canal Zone” paintings, but was largely overruled on appeal on the basis of fair use in April 2013. Yesterday, Cariou relinquished any claim to the remaining five works in the series that were still under evaluation by the courts.