Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/18-956_d18f.pdf
Page Number: 57.0

14 

GOOGLE LLC v. ORACLE AMERICA, INC. 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

power.  The majority (again) overlooks that Apple and Mi-
crosoft created mobile operating systems without using Or-
acle’s declaring code.  Second, Oracle always made its de-
claring code freely available to programmers.  There is little 
reason to suspect Oracle might harm programmers by stop-
ping now.  And third, the majority simply assumes that the 
jury, in a future suit over current Android versions, would
give  Oracle  control  of  Android  instead  of  just  awarding
damages or perpetual royalties.

If  the  majority  is  going  to  speculate  about  what  Oracle 
might do, it at least should consider what Google has done.  
The majority expresses concern that Oracle might abuse its 
copyright  protection  (on  outdated  Android  versions)  and
“ ‘attempt to monopolize the market.’ ”  Ante, at 34–35.  But 
it is Google that recently was fined a record $5 billion for 
abusing Android to violate antitrust laws.  Case AT.40099, 
Google Android, July 18, 2018 (Eur. Comm’n-Competition);
European  Comm’n  Press  Release,  Commission  Fines
Google €4.34 Billion for Illegal Practices Regarding Android 
Mobile  Devices  to  Strengthen  Dominance  of  Google’s
Search  Engine,  July  18,  2018.    Google  controls  the  most
widely used mobile operating system in the world.  And if 
companies may now freely copy libraries of declaring code 
whenever it is more convenient than writing their own, oth-
ers will likely hesitate to spend the resources Oracle did to 
create  intuitive,  well-organized  libraries  that  attract  pro-
grammers and could compete with Android.  If the majority
is  worried  about  monopolization,  it  ought  to  consider
whether Google is the greater threat. 

By  copying  Oracle’s  work,  Google  decimated  Oracle’s
market and created a mobile operating system now in over
2.5 billion actively used devices, earning tens of billions of 
dollars  every  year.    If  these  effects  on  Oracle’s  potential 
market favor Google, something is very wrong with our fair-
use analysis.