Did Google have a shill blogger during its recent Java smackdown with Oracle?
That's what Oracle would have you believe. Shortly after Judge William Alsup issued an unusual orderTuesday, compelling both parties in the dispute to name writers who they'd paid to publish comments in the lawsuit, Oracle said that Google needs to come clean in the case.
"Oracle has always disclosed all of its financial relationships in this matter," said Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger in an email message. "It is time for Google to do the same." Google declined to comment on the order.
Oracle sued Google two years ago over its creation of a Java clone, called Dalvik, for the Android phone. Oracle maintained that Dalvik violated its patents and copyright, but the database company pretty much lost the case back in June. The two sides had been arguing over who should pay court fees recently, and the order to name paid bloggers comes as a bit of a surprise.
Judge Alsup's order gives both parties until noon on Friday, Aug. 17 to disclose "all authors, journalists, commentators or bloggers who have reported or commented on any issues in this case and who have received money ... from the party."
The order seemed a bit too far-reaching to some. Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University, has blogged about the case. He gets revenue from Google via the company's AdSense program. Should he be identified? That's "not what Alsup meant, but it's what he said," Goldman said in a Twitter message.
"This is a really broadly written order, and kind of a confusing order It's not clear to me what judge Alsup is trying to get at," says Julie Samuels, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "The way this is written, at the very least it needs to be narrowed down or explained."
Google has donated money to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, but has not paid them to blog about the lawsuit, Samuels says.
The big mystery here is what might have prompted Judge Alsup to issued the order. The answer isn't immediately obvious, but it is certainly interesting.
"It would have to be that something improper happened, and that that improper thing could have had an effect on the outcome," Samuels says.
To date, only one blogger has acknowledged having received money from one of the parties in this case. Back in April, patent blogger Florian Mueller said that he'd signed on as an Oracle consultant.
Alsup didn't say what prompted the order. He said he issued it, because the disclosure would would be useful if the case were appealed or if another court decided to rule on a particular part of the case. Oracle says it is appealing the judge's ruling.
Image: Google
