Google must reveal paid commentators after Oracle trial

1 min read Original article ↗

Google has been ordered, for a second time, to reveal financial ties to people who commented about its recent legal dispute with Oracle.

A US judge said the search giant had "failed to comply" with his original deadline and has now given the firm until 24 August to file details.

Google had said it had needed further guidance to be able to give names.

The judge had said he had been "concerned" payments by both companies could have influenced media coverage.

In response to the first order, Google had said it had not paid any "author, journalist, commentator of blogger to report or comment" on the case, adding there had not been any other kind of "quid pro quo" (give-and-take) arrangements.

The firm did acknowledge it had financial connections to others who might have commented about the trial but said it would have been "extraordinarily difficult and perhaps impossible" to identify all of them.

On Friday it asked for clarification about how far it should go in order to avoid "flooding the court" with names.

For its part, Oracle named patent consultant and blogger Florian Mueller and Stanford law professor Paul Goldstein.