We’ll soon learn if any journalists or bloggers are earning a few bucks while covering and/or commenting on a major news story.
A judge in the patent lawsuit between the search giant and software maker Oracle ordered both parties to identify “all authors, journalists, commentators, or bloggers who have reported or commented on any issues in this case and who have received money (other than normal subscription fees) from the party or its counsel” during the case, according to a
court document.
Both parties have until Friday, Aug. 17, to file their disclosures.
The companies were locked in a legal battled after Oracle sued Google over Java patents in the Android. Google won the lawsuit.
In April, Florian Mueller of the FOSS Patents blog
disclosed that while he was writing about the case extensively, Oracle hired him to perform consulting work.
An Oracle spokesperson on Wednesday gave this statement to
Business Insider:
“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.”
We’ll learn the outcome soon …
(Image
via)