Ah, the life of a company with a market capitalization of $156.8 billion — it isn’t always that easy. Google’s been hung in effigy in the press all week for selling out on net neutrality (in particular the idea that it wants to create a tiered, private Internet and leave the Internet on mobile devices a laissez-faire, corporate free-for-all). Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal got its hands on a confidential document that caught Google wondering out loud what it should do with all that data it has on everyone. Business Insider thinks evil red laser beams shot out of CEO Eric Schmidt’s eyes because he supports the idea of a verified name service for governments to keep track of anonymous activity. And now, Google is being sued by Oracle, and hordes of protesters are about to descend on its doorstep in support of net neutrality. Meanwhile, TechCrunch wants to know when the Gordon Gekko “greed is good” speech is coming, because it’s obviously their primary motive (adding an emphatic not that there’s anything wrong with that).
Five left-wing groups, including MoveOn.org and Free Press, will lead a rally at Google’s Moutainview headquarters today to protest Google’s backdoor deal with Verizon, in which the two companies shut down multilateral talks with the FCC to come up with their own framework for how they think the Internet should be run.
It’s possible Oracle will also be on hand during the protest to serve Google with a complaint alleging that the search giant infringed on patents and copyrights related to Java in Google’s development of its Android mobile operating system software. (Earlier this year, Oracle bought Sun Microsystems, which developed the Java programming language and platform.)
When you come out of the gate identifying yourself as a force for goodness and light, it invites criticism.
A joint policy proposal for an open Internet [Google]
Facts about our network neutrality policy proposal [Google]
New Silicon Valley Battle Royale: Oracle Sues Google [AllThingsD]
