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As the epic court battle over the Android operating system rolls on, the judge overseeing the case has ordered Google and Oracle to disclose who they paid to comment on the case.
In an unusual order, issued Wednesday, Judge William Alsup said that he was concerned that the parties in the case "may have retained or paid print or internet authors, journalists, commentators or bloggers who have and/or may publish comments on this issues in the case."
Oracle sued Google two years ago, claiming that the search company had violated its Java-related copyright and patents when it built a clone of Java for its Android phones. The case got a lot of attention, in part because Oracle's contention that it could copyright an API (application program interface) threw the software industry's conventional wisdom on its head.
Oracle pretty much lost the case, but Alsup still wants to know who was being paid off. In the order, he writes: "the disclosure required by this order would be of use on appeal."
We already know of one blogger who was paid by Oracle. In April, Florian Mueller, author of the FOSS Patents blog, disclosed that he had signed on as an Oracle consultant.
The question raised by Alsup's latest ruling is who, if anyone else, is on the take?
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Photo: Niall Kennedy/Flickr
