Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/18-956_d18f.pdf
Page Number: 50

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

7 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

ideas implemented by computer code—such as math func-
tions, accounting methods, or the idea of declaring code—
not  the  specific  expression  Oracle  created.    Oracle  cannot 
copyright the idea of using declaring code, but it can copy-
right the specific expression of that idea found in its library. 
Google also contends that declaring code is not copyright-
able  because  the  “merger  doctrine”  bars  copyright  protec-
tion when there is only one way to express an idea.  That 
argument fails for the same reasons Google’s §102(b) argu-
ment fails.  Even if the doctrine exists, Google admits that
it is merely an application of §102(b).  And, in any event,
there may have been only one way for Google to copy the 
lines  of  declaring  code,  but  there  were  innumerable  ways 
for  Oracle  to  write  them.    Certainly,  Apple  and  Microsoft
managed to create their own declaring code. 

III 
The Court inexplicably declines to address copyrightabil-
ity.  Its sole stated reason is that “technological, economic,
and  business-related  circumstances”  are  “rapidly  chang-
ing.”  Ante,  at  15.  That,  of  course,  has  been  a  constant 
where computers are concerned.

Rather  than  address  this  principal  question,  the  Court 
simply assumes that declaring code is protected and then 
concludes that every fair-use factor favors Google.  I agree
with the majority that Congress did not “shiel[d] computer
programs from the ordinary application” of fair use.  Ante, 
at 18.  But the majority’s application of fair use is far from 
ordinary.  By  skipping  copyrightability,  the  majority  gets
the methodology backward, causing the Court to sidestep a 
key conclusion that ineluctably affects the fair-use analysis:
Congress  rejected  categorical  distinctions  between  declar-
ing and implementing code.  But the majority creates just 
such a distinction.  The result of this distorting analysis is 
an  opinion  that  makes  it  difficult  to  imagine  any  circum-