UPDATED 20:00 EDT / FEBRUARY 26 2020

POLICY

Oracle has been outed as a donor for the Internet Accountability Project

Database software giant Oracle Corp. has been outed as one of the donors of the Internet Accountability Project, which is a conservative organization that’s been throwing its weight behind a growing call for tougher privacy rules and stronger regulation of big tech companies.

The IAP had always refused to say who was funding it, but it revealed in a disclosure on its website that Oracle donated between $25,000 and $99,000 last year, according to a Bloomberg report Tuesday.

Oracle has been funding the IAP as part of its long-running campaigns against tech rivals such as Amazon Web Services Inc. and Google LLC. Oracle has been gunning for Amazon and its cloud business for years, while it’s also involved in a lengthy legal battle with Google regarding the use of patents relating to the Java programming language it owns.

The IAP most recently filed an amicus brief in support of Oracle in that case, saying it wants to ensure that Google respects the copyrights of inventors such as Oracle. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case, called Google v. Oracle America, on March 24.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has sided with Oracle in the case, urging the Supreme Court to reject Google’s latest appeal. The plea came the same day that Oracle’s co-founder and Chairman Larry Ellison, hosted a fundraiser for Trump at his Rancho Mirage Estate, prompting about 300 Oracle employees to stage a protest the next day.

IAP President Mike Davis told Bloomberg that the organization does not usually disclose its backers, but said it was doing so in this case to clarify that Oracle was not funding its own Supreme Court brief.

Photo: Open Grid Scheduler/Grid Engine/Flickr

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