Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/18-956_d18f.pdf
Page Number: 61.0

18 

GOOGLE LLC v. ORACLE AMERICA, INC. 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

Google does not dispute the Federal Circuit’s conclusion 
that it copied the heart or focal points of Oracle’s work.  886 
F. 3d,  at  1207.  The  declaring  code  is  what  attracted  pro-
grammers to the Java platform and why Google was so in-
terested in that code.  And Google copied that code “verba-
tim,” which weighs against fair use.  Harper, 471 U. S., at 
565.  The majority does not disagree.  Instead, it concludes 
that  Google  took  no  more  than  necessary  to  create  new 
products.  That  analysis  fails  because  Google’s  use  is  not
transformative.  Campbell,  510  U. S.,  at  586  (recognizing 
that  this  fourth  factor  “will  harken  back  to  the  [purpose-
and-character] statutory facto[r]”).  This factor thus weighs
against Google.

Even if Google’s use were transformative, the majority is
wrong to conclude that Google copied only a small portion 
of  the  original  work.  The  majority  points  out  that  the 
11,500  lines  of  declaring  code—enough  to  fill  about  600 
pages in an appendix, Tr. of Oral Arg. 57—were just a frac-
tion of the code in the Java platform.  But the proper de-
nominator is declaring code, not all code.  A copied work is
quantitatively substantial if it could “serve as a market sub-
stitute for the original” work or “potentially licensed deriv-
atives” of that work. Campbell, 510 U. S., at 587.  The de-
claring code is what attracted programmers.  And it is what 
made  Android  a  “market  substitute”  for  “potentially  li-
censed derivatives” of Oracle’s Java platform.  Google’s cop-
ying was both qualitatively and quantitatively substantial. 

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In sum, three of the four statutory fair-use factors weigh
decidedly  against  Google.    The  nature  of  the  copyrighted 
work—the sole factor possibly favoring Google—cannot by 
itself  support  a  determination  of  fair  use  because  holding 

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