Near entry of judgment, Judge Alsup orderd Oracle and Google in a major IP tussle to reveal ties to bloggers, journalists, and academics -- including apparently at least one person who blogged for a long while without revealing that he was a paid consultant to one of the parties. The order is here: "each side and its counsel shall file a statement herein clear identifying 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 pendency of this action"
The judge ordered both parties to reveal any relationship with not just bloggers, but journalists and academics with whom either had a financial relationship. A longer article is here.
My first reaction is that it's a good idea. I draw the analogy to "sponsored" scientific research. I know some say it would describe disclosure of blogs with "adsense" but that seems wrong to me, given the "other than normal subscription fees" language. Thoughts?
[Full disclosure: I gave a cle at Google once! Cool place to visit.]
