Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/18-956_d18f.pdf
Page Number: 29

Cite as:  593 U. S. ____ (2021) 

25 

Opinion of the Court 

“ ‘artistic  painting’ ”  might,  for  example,  fall  within  the 
scope of fair use even though it precisely replicates a copy-
righted  “ ‘advertising  logo  to  make  a  comment  about  con-
sumerism.’ ”  4 Nimmer on Copyright §13.05[A][1][b] (quot-
ing Netanel, Making Sense of Fair Use, 15 Lewis & Clark 
L. Rev. 715, 746 (2011)).  Or, as we held in Campbell, a par-
ody can be transformative because it comments on the orig-
inal or criticizes it, for “[p]arody needs to mimic an original
to make its point.”  510 U. S., at 580–581. 

Google copied portions of the Sun Java API precisely, and 
it did so in part for the same reason that Sun created those
portions, namely, to enable programmers to call up imple-
menting programs that would accomplish particular tasks. 
But since virtually any unauthorized use of a copyrighted 
computer program (say, for teaching or research) would do 
the same, to stop here would severely limit the scope of fair 
use  in  the  functional  context  of  computer  programs.
Rather, in determining whether a use is “transformative,”
we must go further and examine the copying’s more specif-
ically  described  “purpose[s]”  and  “character.”    17  U. S. C. 
§107(1).

Here  Google’s  use  of  the  Sun  Java  API  seeks  to  create
new products.  It seeks to expand the use and usefulness of 
Android-based  smartphones.    Its  new  product  offers  pro-
grammers  a  highly  creative  and  innovative  tool  for  a 
smartphone environment.  To the extent that Google used
parts  of  the  Sun  Java  API  to  create  a  new  platform  that 
could  be  readily  used  by  programmers,  its  use  was  con-
sistent with that creative “progress” that is the basic con-
stitutional objective of copyright itself.  Cf. Feist, 499 U. S., 
at 349–350 (“The primary objective of copyright is not to re-
ward the labor of authors, but ‘[t]o promote the Progress of 
Science and useful Arts’ ” (quoting U. S. Const., Art. I, §8, 
cl. 8)).

The jury heard that Google limited its use of the Sun Java 
API to tasks and specific programming demands related to