If you’re a blogger or journalist who received payments from Oracle or Google to write about their copyright infringement case, prepare yourselves. The judge in Oracle’s lawsuit against Google wants to know who's been paid by either of the companies to cover the case.  U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered the companies to hand over the names of anyone "who have and/or may publish comments on the issues in this case," including print or Internet authors, journalists, commentators or bloggers. I admit that I wrote about their case recently. But Google and Oracle must have missed this, because I haven't received anything. Oracle used the order as an excuse to take another shot at Google.

Oracle has always disclosed all of its financial relationships in this matter, and it is time for Google to do the same. We read this order to also include indirect payments to entities who, in turn, made comments on behalf of Google.

Surprisingly, one of the bloggers involved is Florian Mueller, the guy behind the FOSS Patents blog. He has a relationship with Oracle. It appears that both Google and Oracle have paid bloggers, journalists and others to write articles that either favor their side, or diss the other. This trial just got more interesting.

Related Links

• Google and Oracle ordered to disclose bloggers and journalists they paid to influence coverage [TheVerge]
• Judge: Hey Oracle and Google – Turn Over The Names Of Your Paid Bloggers [TechCrunch]
• Judge Orders Google, Oracle To Confess If They Paid Off Bloggers To Write About Their Lawsuit [Business Insider]