After the judge presiding over the Oracle/Google lawsuit issued a strange order telling both sides to reveal the names of journalists and bloggers they paid to comment on the case, everyone in the tech industry was curious.
Who was Google paying?
The thing is, we already knew that Oracle was paying one prominent commentator in the case—Florian Mueller of the FOSS Patents blog.
Oracle spokesperson Deborah Hellinger sent us this statement:
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.
Mueller disclosed his relationship with Oracle in April, and he also disclosed that Microsoft is a client, too.
Mueller has long been a controversial voice in the tech world. About two weeks ago, the Groklaw blog posted an enormous rant about him and the things he said in his blog about this case.
But was there a paid Google blogger, too, and if so, who?
Google isn't commenting on Oracle's accusation.
Both sides have until Friday, August 17, to come clean. So if there are a bunch of tech journalists or bloggers on the take, we'll find out by then.
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