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Judge: Google 'failed to comply' with order to disclose paid journalists and bloggers

Judge: Google 'failed to comply' with order to disclose paid journalists and bloggers

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Judge William Alsup has asked Google once again to reveal all of the journalists or bloggers it has compensated that could have commented on Oracle v. Google, finding that the company "failed to comply" with its original response.

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Earlier this month Judge William Alsup ordered Oracle and Google to disclose any journalists or bloggers either has paid that could have commented on the Oracle v. Google case. Both parties responded last week — but Judge Alsup didn't think Google was completely forthright, and has asked the company to try again by the end of the week.

In a order filed today, Alsup flatly states that "Google has failed to comply" with his original request. Google had said in its initial response that the company hadn't "paid an author, journalist, commentator or blogger to report or comment on any issues in this case" — a definition that Alsup clearly felt was much too narrow. In his order, he writes that "the order was designed to bring to light authors whose statements about the issues in the case might have been influenced by the receipt of money from Google or Oracle," pointing out that an individual doing consulting work for one of the companies might then be influenced to comment on the Oracle v. Google trial in a particular light.

Oracle admitted in its response that it retains FOSS Patents blogger Florian Mueller as a consultant.

Google will have until noon this Friday, August 24th, to file a new list. While the company needn't include writers that have simply received ad revenue, he does want the company to list "consultants, contractors, vendors, or employees."

"Please simply do your best but the impossible is not required," Alsup writes in his order. "Oracle managed to do it."