Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/18-956_d18f.pdf
Page Number: 5

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

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Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the 
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to 
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order that 
corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

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No. 18–956 
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GOOGLE LLC, PETITIONER v. 
ORACLE AMERICA, INC. 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 
APPEALS FOR THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT 

[April 5, 2021]

 JUSTICE BREYER delivered the opinion of the Court. 
Oracle America, Inc., is the current owner of a copyright
in Java SE, a computer program that uses the popular Java 
computer programming language.  Google, without permis-
sion,  has  copied  a  portion  of  that program,  a  portion  that 
enables a programmer to call up prewritten software that, 
together  with  the  computer’s  hardware,  will  carry  out  a 
large number of specific tasks.  The lower courts have con-
sidered  (1)  whether  Java  SE’s  owner  could  copyright  the 
portion that Google copied, and (2) if so, whether Google’s
copying  nonetheless  constituted  a  “fair  use”  of  that  mate-
rial,  thereby  freeing  Google  from  copyright  liability.    The 
Federal Circuit held in Oracle’s favor (i.e., that the portion
is copyrightable and Google’s copying did not  constitute a 
“fair use”).  In reviewing that decision, we assume, for ar-
gument’s  sake,  that  the  material  was  copyrightable.    But 
we hold that the copying here at issue nonetheless consti-
tuted a fair use.  Hence, Google’s copying did not violate the 
copyright law. 

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In  2005,  Google  acquired  Android,  Inc.,  a  startup  firm