
Oracle’s has planted negative stories as part of its war against Google - denzil_correa
https://www.recode.net/2017/12/6/16721364/oracle-google-political-war-location-track-android-safra-catz-java-lawsuit
======
cromwellian
One often wonders why Google massively ramped up lobbying in recent years, the
primary reason seems to be attempted regulatory capture by Oracle and
Microsoft astro-turfing, shills, and funded industry groups, much of this
going on at the same time Oracle and Microsoft were engaged in highly
litigious campaigns against open source and waging offensive patent cases or
in Microsoft's case, straight up shakedowns of Android OEMs. The ISPs and
Media companies were also engaged in shennanigans
([https://www.theverge.com/2014/12/18/7417891/google-
condemns-...](https://www.theverge.com/2014/12/18/7417891/google-condemns-
sony-project-goliath))

So when you see a State Attorney General in the middle of a fly over state
suddenly become a warrior and white knight on a specific issue, you might want
to wonder who's paying.

And yes, Google has paid people to write favorable articles on things like
copyright or search algorithm freedom, but ask yourself, what's worse, Oracle
copyrighting APIs, the old MS going after Linux and open source and patent
trolling, or Hollywood aggressively cracking down on the web, or Google
arguing it should have the right to tweak it's ranking algorithms on its own
sites. One group is arguing to impose restrictions on other people with
collateral damage all around, the other is arguing for greater freedom for
itself. It's self serving, but I think freedom to innovate and avoid heavy
handed regulation and online censorship is a different animal than those rent-
seeking.

