Florian Mueller Outs Himself As Oracle Employee

eldavojohn writes "So you're commenting on your highly visible blog about patent case after patent case that deal with corporations battling over open source stuff, what does it matter if you're taking money from one and not the other? If you don't see any ethical problems with that, you might be Florian Mueller. Groklaw's PJ (who has been suspicious of Florian's ties to other giants like Microsoft for quite sometime) has noticed that Florian Mueller has decided to go full disclosure and admit that all his commentary on the Oracle v Google case might be tainted by his employment by Oracle. It seems he's got a bunch of consulting money coming his way from Oracle but I'm sure that won't undermine any of his assessments like Android licenses violate the GPL or that Oracle will win $6 billion from Google and Google was "at risk" of not settling despite the outcome that the charges later dropped to a small fraction of the $6 billion. Like so many other times, PJ's hunch was right."

Re:This just shows paranoid FOSS fanatics are

[gstrickler]

RTFA, he works for both MS & Oracle.

... and he is now analyzing FRAND issues for both Microsoft and Oracle.

Re:This just shows paranoid FOSS fanatics are

[sosume]

Along the same line of reasoning then, since the NSA is a customer of Oracle ...
Besides, the question is if Oracle paid him for consulting services, or for marketing services. A true professional should be able to distinguish 'best interests for the client' based on what he is paid for.

Re:PJ has her own biases

[UnknowingFool]

PJ might have her own agenda but it is not motivated by one side paying her. I've always questioned Florian's stance as well as his logic. Read his posts in lwn where he tried to frame it that Google violated the Linux GPL and copyright by using creating new header files in Android. When told repeatedly by others (including some who have code in Linux) that Google creating new headers does not violate anything because (1) the header files in question were created for compatibility which is allowed, (2) header files unless they contain some sort of unique logic (which they did not) are not copyrightable, and (3) for there to be violation, the Linus et al must object (which they did not).

Re:This just shows paranoid FOSS fanatics are

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is this news? Florian openly admits that he is a consultant on patent issues. I'm sure he'd consult for Ubuntu if they would pay him. As always, Slashdot considers earning money to be the equivalent of being evil.

Meanwhile, PJ is considered an unbiased source even though PJ is very, very clearly biased towards defending Linux and attacking certain companies. The double-standards abound at Slashdot. That's why year ago I stopped considering this site to be a place of intellectual discussion and instead realized that it was a place of mindless fanboyism.

Re:PJ has her own biases

[HarrySquatter]

How do you now that when she doesn't disclose who she works for?

Re:This just shows paranoid FOSS fanatics are

[Chrisq]

I am constantly being accused of shilling for Microsoft on Slashdot just because I write that they do some good things. Seems like Mueller was accused for that too. Well, turns out that not true and these FOSS lunatics just make out some huge conspiracy theories how the whole world is against them. And by the way, who should comment on these issues then? Someone who doesn't work in the industry and doesn't know anything about it? Yeah right. But of course it's bad when the comments contain something you don't agree with. For the free speech and freedom, yeah right!

Does that mean that you are being paid by Microsoft in the same way that Mueller is being paid by Oracle, but you also think it is OK?

Re:This just shows paranoid FOSS fanatics are

[TheRaven64]

I guess I was wrong then. I always defended Florian against accusations of being a shill, thinking that he was just an idiot and that no company would knowingly pay someone as stupid as him. It seems Microsoft and Oracle have lower standards than I though...