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Google and Oracle Ordered to Reveal Blogger Payments
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Google and Oracle have been ordered by a US court to release information of payments they have made to commentators and bloggers writing about their ongoing patent lawsuit.
Oracle sued Google for US$1 billion in royalties over its allegations that the Android OS includes its patents. However, the Jury rejected the claim, and the Judge also rejected a copyright claim by Oracle for some of its source code.
The US Judge who had been hearing the case said he was concerned that public commentary about the lawsuit had been influenced by payments from the two companies. Most formal publications maintain a strict barrier between advertising sales and news reporting, but the line has blurred in recent years with self-published blogs and websites.
Oracle says that it has disclosed all the payments it has made, and that it is time for Google to do the same.
Google is known to have given money to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has lobbied on issues relating to patents, while Oracle has made payments to patent commentator, Florian Mueller. Both deny letting such payments influence their commentary.
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