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Oracle admits funding anti-Google efforts

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By Kyle O'Brien, Creative Works Editor

August 22, 2016 | 2 min read

According to a recent article by Fortune, Oracle is behind a group called the Google Transparency Project, a group that is trying to uncover what it sees as secret decisions between the government and the search giant.

When the group was initially announced earlier this year, the fact that they used the word “transparency,” when it was less than obvious where the money was coming from to fund the project, seemed a conundrum.

A report by Fortune back in April speculated that it might be Microsoft (which denied the charges) or Oracle, which gave no comment at the time.

Now it is obvious that the software company may have its fingers in the pot of the Google Transparency Project. After a very public loss in its copyright case where a jury found that its use of Java APIs in Android didn't infringe on Oracle's copyrights, Oracle has publicly come out as a backer of the project.

“Oracle is absolutely a contributor (one of many) to the Transparency Project. This is important information for the public to know. It is 100 per cent public records and accurate,” said Ken Glueck, Senior Vice President of Oracle to Fortune.

The Google Transparency Project is a part of the Campaign for Accountability, a Washington non-profit that promotes transparency and “uses research, litigation and aggressive communications to expose misconduct and malfeasance in public life. Millions of Americans’ lives are negatively impacted by decisions made behind the doors of corporate boardrooms, government offices, and shadowy nonprofit groups,” said a statement on the campaign’s website.

While Oracle is now on record as being a part of the group, Microsoft denies any involvement. This is another example of “astroturfing,” where wealthy companies mask their funding of what appear to be grassroots campaigns.

Google has not commented on the matter.

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