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Oracle and Google File Paid Writers Lists ~pj
Friday, August 17 2012 @ 03:33 PM EDT

Google and Oracle have just filed their lists of anyone they paid to write about their litigation.

On a quick scan, for Google: nobody:

Neither Google nor its counsel has paid an author, journalist, commentator or blogger to report or comment on any issues in this case. And neither Google nor its counsel has been involved in any quid pro quo in exchange for coverage of or articles about the issues in this case.
So they list nonprofits they donate to and folks who have won research awards.

For Oracle, though: they retained Florian Mueller of FOSSPatents, but they say he was not paid to write about the litigation:

Oracle has retained Florian Mueller, author of the blog FOSS Patents, www.fosspatents.com, as a consultant on competition-related matters, especially relating to standards-essential patents. Oracle notes that Mr. Mueller fully disclosed his relationship with Oracle in a blog posting dated April 18, 2012; that Oracle retained him after he had begun writing about this case; and that he was not retained to write about the case. Mr. Mueller is a frequent critic of Oracle and was a leading advocate against Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Inc., which led to Oracle’s ownership of Sun's Java IP portfolio. A copy of Mr. Mueller’s disclosure is attached as Exhibit A at 5.


Here are the filings:
1236 - Filed & Entered: 08/17/2012
Statement re [1229] Order - ORACLE'S STATEMENT REGARDING FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIPS WITH COMMENTATORS - by Oracle America, Inc.. (Attachments: # (1) Exhibit A, # (2) Exhibit B, # (3) Exhibit C, # (4) Exhibit D)(Jacobs, Michael) (Filed on 8/17/2012)

1237 - Filed & Entered: 08/17/2012 RESPONSE to re [1229] Order Re Disclosure of Financial Relationships with Commentators on Issues in this Case by Google Inc.. (Attachments: # (1) Exhibit A, # (2) Exhibit B)(Van Nest, Robert) (Filed on 8/17/2012)

Oracle notes that some of its employees may have blogged about the case, but they don't track that:

Certain Oracle employees may have blogged about issues relating to the case. See, e.g., https://blogs.oracle.com/hinkmond/ (blogging about Java ME). Oracle did not ask or approve any of its employees to write about the case and does not track employee bloggers.
Oracle adds this:
In view of the Order’s reference to treatise writers, out of an abundance of caution, Oracle notes that Stanford University Professor Paul Goldstein is Of Counsel to Morrison & Foerster and is the author of the treatise Goldstein on Copyright. Professor Goldstein has not commented on this lawsuit.
Indeed, a number of employees did blog about it, from day one, as you can see on the list linked to here.

Oracle then, in character, attacks Google, claiming it "maintains" a wide network of influencers. It cites some media reactions to this judge's order, including some slanted guesses about various things. Guesses in the media are not proof. Mueller, however, says something specific in one, Exhibit B:

Florian Mueller, a patent consultant based in Germany, revealed on 18 April that Oracle had "very recently become a consulting client" - two days after the court case began. He had written about the lawsuit over previous months on his influential Foss Patents blog and continued to do so after his declaration, often making comments sympathetic to Oracle's claims.

When questioned by the BBC he said he could provide only a limited amount of detail about the relationship.

"There was never any request to say please do this or that," he said. "We agreed I would still express my views and pick my topics. I wrote all the blog posts independently, and they did not see draft posts."

Pick from what list? His own? Suggestions? It reminds me of Microsoft's Get the Facts website. Remember that? All those "independent" studies? Remember all the think tanks that Microsoft helped out with money that attacked Open Source on cue early in the SCO saga?

Google asks the court for direction on whether he wants more information. A lot was written about the case, so where is the line he is drawing?

Given the rise of self-publishing, individual blogs, and other fora for coverage and opinion, it is possible that any number of individuals or organizations, including those with indirect or attenuated financial connections with the parties, might have expressed views regarding this case. Rather than flooding the Court with long lists of such individuals or organizations who might have written something about the case, Google outlines below several general categories of individuals and organizations and requests the Court's further guidance as to whether it would be useful for Google to provide more details or attempt to compile a more comprehensive list. Google does not believe that individuals or organizations within these categories were intended to be encompassed within the scope of the Court's Order but Google brings them to the Court's attention out of an abundance of caution. Neither Google nor its counsel has paid any individuals or organizations within these categories to report or comment on any issues in this case.

A. Universities and other non-profit entities ...

B. Organizations to which Google belongs or has made contributions...

C. Individuals who participate in Google's advertising programs and who have elected to comment on the case...

D. Google employees, vendors or contractors who may have commented on the case...

E. Expert consultants...

F. Witnesses identified for trial....

None of the above were paid to write or comment on the trial. And no, Groklaw won't be on any of those lists either, if the court decides he wants them. Oracle just can't stop smearing Google, however, and it has a suggestion for the court, mentioning Ed Black and Jonathan Band, neither of whom, I'll point out, are on Google's list:
In contrast, Oracle notes that Google maintains a network of direct and indirect “influencers” to advance Google’s intellectual property agenda. This network is extensive, including attorneys, lobbyists, trade associations, academics, and bloggers, and its focus extends beyond pure intellectual property issues to competition/antitrust issues. Oracle notes that Google’s extensive network of influencers has been the subject of recent press coverage. See, e.g., Exhibits B and C. Oracle believes that Google brought this extensive network of influencers to help shape public perceptions concerning the positions it was advocating throughout this trial.

While it is Google’s obligation by the Court’s Order to disclose the full scope and details of this network as it relates to this case or the issues in this case, Oracle notes just two prominent examples: Ed Black, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, funded in large part by Google, has written specifically on the issue of copyrightability of APIs. See, e.g., Exhibit D. Jonathan Band was a co-author of the book, “Interfaces on Trial 2.0,” which Google cited in its April 3, 2012 copyright brief. Band’s indirect relationship to Google through Google supported trade associations is discussed in the August 10, 2012 Recorder article attached as Exhibit C.

What the court ought to do, should it decide to go forward, is find out from the authors of the media articles Oracle cites if Oracle or any of its lawyers, including Boies Schiller, planted a bee in the bonnet of those journalists, like Roger Parloff. You remember his article in favor of SCO when it lost the first time on summary judgment, Did SCO Get Mob Justice? SCO lawyers referenced it in the bankruptcy, in successfully arguing against the US Trustee and IBM and Novell motions to dismiss or convert SCO's bankruptcy. Does he always take the same side as Boies, Schiller? Do his articles always get used by that law firm in litigation? Do they appear by coincidence? (His article in Fortune on EFF is referenced in Exhibit B. It's answered ably by lawyer Jennifer Granick of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet & Society.) Is there a relationship there between Boies Schiller and Parloff? From an article by Parloff in 2007:
When Google (GOOG) announced its $3.1 billion proposed acquisition of DoubleClick on April 13, recovering monopolists Microsoft (MSFT) and AT&T (T) were the most vociferous complainants urging regulators to scrutinize the deal.

Alluding to the irony, I asked Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith last week if he’d be hiring David Boies, of Boies Schiller & Flexner, to counsel his company on the antitrust issues. It was Boies, of course, who had sliced and very nearly diced Microsoft seven years ago as lead trial attorney for the government in its monopolization case against Microsoft.

“Honestly, it hadn’t occurred to me,” Smith said, but he sounded intrigued, and asked me to have Boies call him if he seemed interested after I spoke to him.

Alas, I’ll be getting no referral fee. By the time I finally got through to Boies today, his partner Donald Flexner had already been retained by long-time client AT&T for the same purpose. Flexner could not immediately be reached for comment.

Alas, I'll be getting no referral fee?

As Joe Wilcox pointed out on BetaNews a few days ago in an article decrying the one-sided pro-Apple media coverage of the Apple v. Samsung trial, David Boies is known for his relationships with journalists:

Trials like this one are as much about storytelling as lawyering and perhaps more when presenting to a jury -- who tells the better story inside and outside the courtroom. Much of the news reporting and US District Judge Lucy Koh's handling of the case remind me of what I saw during the US antitrust case brought against Microsoft in May 1998. Microsoft couldn't catch much of a break from US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson. Many rulings from the bench favored the government and more than a few unfavorably Microsoft (I covered the case and sat in the courtroom).

Interestingly, the case that unfolded in actual legal filings differed from courtroom dramatics. The paper trail better favored Microsoft's defense than the trial. But the government told the better story, and lead attorney David Boies used the media effectively doing so -- little things like meeting with reporters (Drinks, anyone?) following the day in court. Much of the reporting favored the government's case, and too often ignored Microsoft's story.

Should the court want to get into "a network of direct and indirect 'influencers'", there is more than one story to be told.

And no. I won't be on that list either.

Update: The BBC now has a fuller quote from Mueller:

"In April, I proactively announced a broadly-focused consulting relationship with Oracle, six months after announcing a similar working relationship with Microsoft," he told the BBC ahead of Oracle's filing.

"I can also certify that I wrote all of my blog posts on the trial independently, without being directed or influenced by anyone.

"All the information I received from Oracle itself was what the company uploaded to its website on each trial day. With the exception of the disclosure statement, Oracle never saw my posts, in whole or in part, before they went live."

For historians, Mueller only revealed the Microsoft association after being asked repeatedly by members of the FOSS community, and only under some pressure. Check LWN and Slashdot comments and you'll see it's so. It's not at all the case that he was eager.

The Verge's Nilay Patel:

Oracle has admitted to the court that it retains the frequently-cited Florian Mueller of the popular blog FOSS Patents as a consultant....

Oracle notes in the filing that Mueller has previously disclosed his relationship with Oracle, and says that it retained Mueller only as a consultant on "competition issues" — the company claims he wasn't hired to write about the trial. Oracle also notes that Mueller has been a vocal critic of Oracle in the past, and that he'd already begun writing about the trial at the time he was hired. Even still, Mueller's enormous volume of output on FOSS Patents fairly raises the question of when he finds the time to do any serious consulting work for Oracle in between his diligently granular tracking of several international patent lawsuits, his frequent media appearances, and his additional work as a paid consultant to Microsoft.

Mueller may have disclosed his relationship with Oracle and Microsoft in the past, but he doesn't always voluntarily disclose his financial relationships with two major Google competitors when making statements to the press — and Mueller is prolific in that regard. He's regularly quoted in a huge variety of outlets, including Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, as a "patent expert" or "patent consultant," but almost never as "paid Oracle consultant" or "paid Microsoft consultant." That's simply misleading, and presumably the sort of under-the-table influence Judge Alsup intended to flush out with his order. We'll see how the media — and Mueller — react.

Jeff John Roberts on paidContent:
Oracle’s list is headed by patent propagandist, Florian Mueller, a long-time Microsoft consultant whose FOSS Patents blog regularly posts articles slanted against Google (see “Oracle Java patent rises like Phoenix from the ashes”). Mueller, who has no legal training, reportedly works with lawyers of his clients to issue authoritative-sounding pronouncements about patent cases.

Oracle and Mueller have attempted to defend the latter’s behavior by noting that Mueller issued a brief disclosure at the outset of the trial. Mueller did not, however, flag the conflict of interest in subsequent posts and typically does not disclose his affiliations when speaking to other media outlets. Oracle does state “Oracle retained him after he had begun write about this case; and that he was not retained to write about the case.”

Charles Cooper calls Mueller a "copyright specialist", which isn't accurate. I'd call it laughable.

Wired's Robert McMillan:

Google says it didn’t pay bloggers to write about its Java dispute with Oracle.

Google said so in a federal court filing in San Francisco on Friday, and followed it up with a statement to the press issued a few minutes later. “Our reply to the court is clear,” Google said, “no one on our side paid journalists, bloggers, or other commentators to write about this case.”

Oracle responded to the judge’s order Friday too, saying that it was paying one blogger — Florian Mueller, who comments on the case. Mueller disclosed his relationship with Oracle back in April.

When Mueller he announced, he revealed that he and Oracle had been planning it for quite a while:
After the third day of the Oracle v. Google trial, this is my first post on this litigation since the trial started. From the outset, I have been monitoring the events in San Francisco by analyzing new filings on the docket, Oracle's and Google's opening slides, media reports, and the Twitter feeds of journalists who are in the courtroom....

Disclosure of recently-formed consulting relationship relationship with Oracle

I have been following Oracle v. Google since the filing of the lawsuit in August 2010 and have read pretty much every line of each court filing in this litigation. My long-standing views on this matter are well-documented. As an independent analyst and blogger, I will express only my own opinions, which cannot be attributed to any one of my diversity of clients. I often say things none of them would agree with. That said, as a believer in transparency I would like to inform you that Oracle has very recently become a consulting client of mine. We intend to work together for the long haul on mostly competition-related topics including, for one example, FRAND licensing terms....

When Oracle and I started talking about areas in which I could provide analysis, we thought that the Google litigation was going to be over by the time we would work together. Due to various delays, the trial now happens to occur pretty much at the start of this new relationship, and I will continue to cover this lawsuit in detail on this blog, especially during these eventful and interesting weeks. I won't have access to confidential information, but as Judge Alsup noted, this is a public trial, so there's no shortage of publicly available information.

So what does that show? That the voluminous writing about the trial happened only *after* the deal was struck. While it may be true that the contract signed does not mention blogging about the case, the way matters played out, I think we can be forgiven for noticing that at a minimum the money proved, shall we say, inspirational.

ITWorld's Brian Proffitt notes a salient detail about Mr. Brand, which highlights how ridiculous Oracle's guesswork turns out to be, and a reaction from the CCIA:

Update:The CCIA has its own stance on the connection that Oracle raised.

"We have publicly held our position on the copyrightability of APIs since Oracle was a member of our association and Google was not (we also ran the Open Source and Industry Alliance). Furthermore, Google is one of many paying members and is clearly disclosed on our website," Daniel O'Conner, Senior Director, Public Policy & Government Affairs, said in a clarification to me this afternoon. "We frequently take positions at odds with individual members when we don't agree with their underlying policy stances."

Oracle also mentioned an author who was cited within the case that Google did not.

"Jonathan Band was a co-author of the book, 'Interfaces on Trial 2.0,' which Google cited in its April 3, 2012 copyright brief. Band’s indirect relationship to Google through Google supported trade associations is discussed in the August 10, 2012 Recorder article.

Update: After this article was posted, I noted that that original Interfaces on Trial book was published in 1995, a year before Google even existed. And the edition referenced by Oracle, Interfaces on Trial 2.0, was written before Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems and the Java code.

Oracle should be a man about this, admit they goofed hiring Mueller without insisting that he add a disclaimer about any article he ever wrote about Oracle, and say they won't do things like that any more. When folks are hired, they should immediately *stop* writing about the client's case, not start up with gusto. It's unseemly, and no journalist worth his or her salt would *ever* write about a company it took money from, and if it happened, it could only happen if the journalist put a notice about the relationship prominently on every single article about the client. That's Journalism 101.

And Mueller reads Groklaw, I gather. He sent this message:

Oracle never ever suggested a topic for me to blog about -- nor did anyone close to Oracle, such as its counsel. I repeat, never ever.

  


Oracle and Google File Paid Writers Lists ~pj | 178 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Post Corrections here please
Authored by: nsomos on Friday, August 17 2012 @ 03:44 PM EDT
Please post corrections in this thread.
A summary in the title may be helpful.

Thanks

[ Reply to This | # ]

This is why
Authored by: tknarr on Friday, August 17 2012 @ 03:48 PM EDT

This (Florian's comments) is why the companies and the bloggers should have no discretion in revealing payment. The company may not say in so many words "You must say these things for/about us.", but when someone's paying you there's always at least an implicit statement in there: "If we don't like what you're saying for/about us, we're going to stop paying you.". To give either the company or the blogger the right to decide that the payment isn't relevant and doesn't have to be disclosed just isn't kosher. Both of them have a stake in not having the payment disclosed to avoid risking having readers decide that the blogger's being influenced by it. The parties who should be making that decision are the readers of the blog and other outside observers, and they should be making that decision based on all the facts including the ones the company and the blogger might not want them to have.

[ Reply to This | # ]

ORacle overstepping a bit here I think.
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, August 17 2012 @ 03:48 PM EDT
Did the judge ask for either party to make statements about the other party's
possible relationships or payments to people or organizations that may have made
public comments about the case? If not, can Oracle be sanctioned for doing so?

[ Reply to This | # ]

what it tells me ...
Authored by: nsomos on Friday, August 17 2012 @ 04:02 PM EDT
To me, the fact that Oracle DOES pay FM, who writes,
and that Oracle also tries to smear Google, speaks volumes.

That Oracle is paying FM for consulting on supposedly
competition related matters, means that either that Oracle
is being ripped off, or they are less than entirely honest.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Apology for self
Authored by: BJ on Friday, August 17 2012 @ 04:18 PM EDT
I hereby declare that I was sympathetic to Google's side of this case. My
sympathies were based on the merits of its arguments.

As well Oracle's assertions and tactics caused me to smell a rat, making me
highly unsympathetic to Oracle.

My sympathetic / unsympathetic feelings towards these parties were mutually
independent, and thus unlike 'communicating vessels'.

I hereby declare that I have not and have never had and don't foresee having any
relation to Google nor Oracle in whatever way that might fall under the judge's
definition, or the spirit of his inquiry.

I hate bullies, that's all.

bjd


[ Reply to This | # ]

I'm surprised William Patry isn't on any list
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, August 17 2012 @ 04:20 PM EDT
He writes one of the leading treatises on copyright, and is Google's senior copyright council. I do not know if he has publicly commented on the case (he used to blog, but has since stopped, last I checked), and supports a restricted view of copyright that jives with Google's business model (and that I happen to agree with).

His last major publication, How to Fix Copyright, was released subsequent to the commencement of the case, though likely makes no mention of it.

I suspect Oracle's listing of Paul Goldstein is so they can waggle a finger at Google should Google fail to explicitly mention Patry. That said, I'm certain the Court is well aware of Patry's relationship to Google.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Arguably Mueller is not influenced by his financial relationship with Oracle
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, August 17 2012 @ 04:26 PM EDT
As far as I can make out, he has always had his ridiculous
biases and badly thought out reasoning.

I think this may be just a case of Oracle choosing the clown
they want, rather than influencing reporting directly.

Wonder if he'll report on this exciting new court development.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Oracle IS paying ONE blogger
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, August 17 2012 @ 04:50 PM EDT
From the article on wired" Oracle responded to the judge’s order Friday too, saying that it was paying one blogger — Florian Mueller," Click for wired article

[ Reply to This | # ]

"the instant lawsuit"
Authored by: crs17 on Friday, August 17 2012 @ 04:53 PM EDT
In google's brief they refer to "the instant lawsuit". Now I know
that is just lawyerese for "the lawsuit in front of us now". But I
thought it funny to think of that with a different meaning of
"instant" such as "add water and mix". Can you imagine an
"instant" lawsuit - one ready in 60 seconds or so? What would groklaw
write about?

:-)

[ Reply to This | # ]

When was Mueller retained by Oracle?
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, August 17 2012 @ 05:51 PM EDT
It seems to me somewhat evasive to provide only the date on which Herr Mueller disclosed his financial partnership with Oracle.

The more substantive date would be when he was first retained, which is merely asserted as having occurred at some point subsequent to his first blogging about the case (in August of 2010, 16 months prior to the disclosure date).

[ Reply to This | # ]

I think the BBC is running scared - sounding very defensive. Ha ha told you so BBC...
Authored by: SilverWave on Friday, August 17 2012 @ 06:25 PM EDT
But you didn’t listen.

I wonder if he will ever be quoted again by the beeb?



---
RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions

[ Reply to This | # ]

Counselling for FM
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, August 17 2012 @ 06:50 PM EDT
What a blow to the ego it would be if Judge Alsup decided there was no need to
further pursue this inquiry, as "The lone identified journalist for hire
produced no descernable influence or effect."

Mr. Mueller might prefer to be jailed for a week or something.

[ Reply to This | # ]

It would be extraordinarily difficult
Authored by: jonathon on Friday, August 17 2012 @ 06:55 PM EDT
In Google's phrasing in the various classes it says:

«It would be extraordinarily difficult and perhaps impossible for Google to
identify all individuals who have commented on the issues of this case, and who
... », where " ... " is either organizational affiliation, or gets
money from Adsense.

Three points:

1: Even if Google were to supply such a list, that list would include people
whose comments favourable to Oracle, as well as people whose comments were
favourable to Google, as well as people whose comments were unfavourable to both
parties;

2: Whilst they could run a check against sites that use Adsense, they could not
know if the person wrote comments elsewhere;

3: Whilst they could run a check against sites of organizations that they
contributed to, they could not know if, or where employees, volunteers,
ex-employers, and affiliates of those organizations wrote comments elsewhere;

I'm wondering why Google didn't explicitly make those statements in their
filing.

[ Reply to This | # ]

how liable is FM and Oracle in this?
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, August 17 2012 @ 09:56 PM EDT
Just wondering about their Public Liability from spouting
non-sense and inducing stress and anxiety?

I feel stressed out and anxious.

Really. I do.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Perhaps Oracle could provide substance instead of Innuendo?
Authored by: dio gratia on Friday, August 17 2012 @ 10:23 PM EDT
Judge Alsup noting a disparity between Google's response and Oracle's allegation
"that Google maintains a network of direct and indirect “influencers” to
advance Google’s intellectual property agenda" could always order Oracle to
provide substantiation in the search for misrepresentation by Google.

As it is, the allegation is so reminiscent of "The State Department is
infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205 — a list of names
...", Senator Joe McCarthy to the Women’s Republican Club of Wheeling, West
Virginia in February 1950. The number on the illusory list always incrementing
giving the appearance of more investigation underway.

A case of put up or shut up "don't wait for the translation" does
Oracle have any proof? Court filings shouldn't be used for propaganda purposes
and sly innuendo. Less so than should paid media (mis)representation. It
appears down right craven.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Oracle and Google File Paid Writers Lists ~pj
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, August 17 2012 @ 10:42 PM EDT
Interesting that FM always seems to have "independant views" that
coincidently seem to match those of his clients. You cannot expect to really
write impartially when one of the parties is personally sending you money
directly. It just isnt possible. Case in point, ive not seen anything critical
of
oracle or microsoft from him lately.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Off Topic Thread
Authored by: artp on Friday, August 17 2012 @ 11:35 PM EDT
Anything but Mueller or for-hire yellow journalism. Let me
repeat that again....

---
Userfriendly on WGA server outage:
When you're chained to an oar you don't think you should go down when the galley
sinks ?

[ Reply to This | # ]

News Picks Thread
Authored by: artp on Friday, August 17 2012 @ 11:36 PM EDT
Change the Title Block and URLs are very much appreciated.
Helps anchor the reference.

---
Userfriendly on WGA server outage:
When you're chained to an oar you don't think you should go down when the galley
sinks ?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Comes Goes Here
Authored by: artp on Friday, August 17 2012 @ 11:39 PM EDT
For transcriptions of the non-text PDFs from the Comes v. MS
(see above link) to nicely Geeklog-formatted HTML. Or email
to PJ. Reserve your place now!

---
Userfriendly on WGA server outage:
When you're chained to an oar you don't think you should go down when the galley
sinks ?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Consulting 101
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, August 18 2012 @ 12:09 AM EDT
FM: Oracle never ever suggested a topic for me to blog about -- nor did anyone close to Oracle, such as its counsel. I repeat, never ever.

The mark of professionalism as a consultant is to anticipate your customer's needs and to operate without requiring detailed direction. A good consultant needs to be told only the ultimate goal and then uses his experience and knowledge of the industry to direct himself towards that goal. It's abilities like these that keep customers coming back for more.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Prestidigitation
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, August 18 2012 @ 02:45 AM EDT
Whilst Oracle is busying itself in slinging as much mud as possible at Google,
through its lawyers, perhaps it will pay dividends to look at what Oracle is
doing with it's other metaphorical hand?

In other words, what Oracle is NOT saying is perhaps more informative about
their motives and ethics.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Oracle and Google File Paid Writers Lists ~pj
Authored by: ThrPilgrim on Saturday, August 18 2012 @ 06:36 AM EDT
Oracle did not ask or approve any of its employees to write about the case and does not track employee bloggers.

Oracle my not ask, but it's official bloggers do follow the case see here

---
Beware of him who would deny you access to information for in his heart he considers himself your master.

[ Reply to This | # ]

PJ, I love you, but this is a little over the top.
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, August 18 2012 @ 08:16 AM EDT
Quoth Florian:
"There was never any request to say please do this or that," he said. "We agreed I would still express my views and pick my topics. I wrote all the blog posts independently, and they did not see draft posts."
Quoth PJ: Pick from what list? His own? Suggestions? It reminds me of Microsoft's Get the Facts website. Remember that? All those "independent" studies? Really? This is paranoia. The original quote from Florian seems like a flat-out denial that Oracle in any way influenced either his choice of topics or content.

If you think he's lying, OK. Say so. But to suggest he's cleverly doublespeaking being handed a list of topics by Oracle, and only "choosing" in the sense of picking "which Oracle line to feed to the world" doesn't seem in any way implied here.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Interesting comment on slashdot
Authored by: pem on Saturday, August 18 2012 @ 02:25 PM EDT
Contrasting Oracle's statement to the judge about Oracle's employee-bloggers with Oracle's internal employee policy.

[ Reply to This | # ]

FM's not a journalist
Authored by: xtifr on Saturday, August 18 2012 @ 04:18 PM EDT

PJ wrote:

It's unseemly, and no journalist worth his or her salt would *ever* write about a company it took money from, and if it happened, it could only happen if the journalist put a notice about the relationship prominently on every single article about the client. That's Journalism 101.
But FM's not a journalist, is he? He's a pundit--a self-appointed "expert" in fields he has no formal training in, like patent law. He's more like a PR flack than a journalist. Or a cross between that and a one-man advertising company.

Of course Oracle didn't tell him what to write about. You don't tell your advertising company what should go in an ad. You ask them. And with an independent flack like Florian, you simply give him money and expect him to start issuing opinions that support your positions, much like an ad company issues ads that promote your products.

FM's more like a spambot than a journalist, except that technically, he's not a bot. But his job is to go out and inject PR on whatever forums he can, much as a spambot injects ads. Expecting him to follow a journalistic code of conduct makes about as much sense as expecting an infomercial to provide a fair and balanced view of the products on the market.

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Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for it makes them soggy and hard to light.

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  • +1 - Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, August 18 2012 @ 05:32 PM EDT
  • FM's not a journalist - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, August 22 2012 @ 12:02 PM EDT
Mueller a "copyright specialist"
Authored by: hardmath on Saturday, August 18 2012 @ 10:00 PM EDT
It's a bit late in the day, but I parsed this the first three
times I read it as "copycat specialist". Given Mueller's
confessed reliance on Oracle's daily trial postings, I'm
afraid this misreading made all too much sense, esp. beside
PJ's assessment that it was "laughable".



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Hate the math. Don't hate the mathematician!

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Being an Honest Guy
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, August 19 2012 @ 02:23 PM EDT

I take Mueller at his word and his commentaries and quotes were not coordinated with or directed or written by Oracle.

Mind you the thing I'm not seeing is what Oracle did get for its money, i.e., when the contract outlined deliverables, what were the triggers for Oracle's check to be cut. It must have been something of value if it wasn't an active pro-Oracle quote machine. Right?

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Oracle and Google File Paid Writers Lists ~pj
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, August 20 2012 @ 10:05 AM EDT
I admit it, in return for writing favorable coverage on blogs
and comments areas over the last few months, Google has given
me a huge number of freebies like email and calendars, a tool
to search the web, some kind of social networking thing, and
even an operating system which I gather from Apple and Oracle
is worth $Kajillion.

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Oracle and Google File Paid Writers Lists ~pj
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, August 20 2012 @ 12:41 PM EDT
Can IBM/OSDL and Novell file a "no paid writers/bloggers" statement?
I don't think so.

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