Can hardly wait to see the list
That list is going to fun to read
An unknown number of bloggers and hacks are feeling a little sweaty around the collar today, with a US judge ordering the disclosure of financial relationships that might have affected published articles and comment in the Oracle-versus-Google lawsuit. The order follows FOSS Patents’ blogger Florian Mueller’s voluntary …
"Why do I always, but always, find out about these rich people with open wallets willing to pay for scribbles after they've closed them, not while they are still open?"
Contacts, my good man, contacts! You've gotta get out there and network if you want to be in on the latest cash. (You don't really think people actually like to play golf enough to account for those club fees do you?)
"Paid for" journalism in the dock?
They'd need a damn large courtroom to handle that.. Those people are also easy to find - just do a quick check on who wrote positive reviews for the dogs that Microsoft brought out, especially the one that holed the Titanic properly: Windows Vista.
I wrote to both the BBC and the Guardian after they described Mueller as a patent expert pointing out that he has, as far as I know, no qualifications on which to base such a claim: he is neither a patent lawyer not a former patent examiner. No response. I guess that the media doesn't like qualifications being challenged because someone might start to ask how well their own commentators were actually qualified to give as much publicity as they do to their opinions.
By that logic, I know nothing about computers. I have no formal qualification at all, after an B/TEC in engineering. I have, however, 17 years in industry seven of which were as a senior designer engineer at a FTSE100, in charge of the technical steering of a department of 20 other specialist design engineers.
Qualifications aren't everything - see vendor qualification - experience counts for a hell of a lot.
I am afraid that when it comes to IP law, qualifications are a must. You learnt by doing. FM has never worked as a patent attorney or examiner. He has learnt by reading about. I too value experience, but I get worried when, for instance, new graduates tell me confidently that they can do something they read up on Wikipedia the previous night.
I have to say I'm deeply surprised that people are writing comments for money.
I had assumed that it was bots writing these comments.
On some sites you only have to write "I quite like Blogg's Miracle Rug Cleaner" to get, 50 ns later, a reply to your comment saying:
Blogg's Miracle Rug Cleaner is one of the worst products I have ever encountered, even Wile E Coyote wouldn't use this stuff. I only sprinkled a tiny amount on the living room carpet and now my wife has developed scales, my kids' asthma makes the house sound like a Darth Vader convention, my dog has exploded and the cat has hired a hitman to take me out.
Use Smith's Miracle Rug cleaner instead. I did and now my house if full of magic moonbeams, my mother-in-law has emigrated, exotic wildlife has moved into my garden, I have won the lottery twice and the lead on my roof has all turned to gold.