Judge: Google didn’t follow “show your shills” order

US District Judge William Alsup, who oversaw the Oracle v. Google lawsuit, is concerned that paid bloggers or other types of writers may have influenced the court—and he wants Google to try a little harder to come up with a list of any writers it may have paid.

Google produced a general list of "types" of people and organizations that get money from the search giant and would have been in a position to comment on the case if they chose to. That list includes universities, specific grant recipients, Google employees, and even bloggers who participate in Google's advertising program. However, "neither Google nor its counsel has paid any individuals or organizations within those categories to report or comment on any issues in this case," the search giant wrote in a court document filed Friday.

That isn't good enough for Alsup, who wrote that as it stands, Google hasn't complied with his order. Oracle did comply, in Alsup's view, by disclosing that it had paid one blogger: Florian Mueller, a self-styled patent expert frequently quoted in the press. Mueller disclosed the relationship himself in April, albeit at the end of a long blog post. Oracle says it never paid Mueller to write blog posts about the case.

And it's not a small thing, in the judge's view. "Just as a treatise on the law may influence the courts, public commentary that purports to be independent may have an influence on the courts and/or their staff if only in subtle ways," opines Alsup in today's order [PDF]. "If a treatise author or blogger is paid by a litigant, should not that relationship be known?"

In its response, Oracle lawyers not only disclosed paid blogger Mueller, they also happily took a shot at Google's claims of transparency. They argue that it's Google, not Oracle, who pays a shadowy "network of influencers" including trade organization CCIA.

Alsup doesn't seem to have bought into any conspiracy theories yet, but he would like Google to give the list-making a better shot. Consultants and employees who commented on the trial count; universities, big organizations, and bloggers who just use Google advertising software clearly don't, he said. "Oracle managed to do it," he noted.