Epic v. Google: everything we learned in Fortnite court
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Kleidermacher, in an old deposition. After some discussion in a taskforce Google formed to discuss the issue, Google’s Edward Cunningham did indeed give Epic a 90-day disclosure deadline to fix it, according to an email we just saw in court from August 15th, 2018. Epic claims the bug was fixed on August 16th, one day later.
But in the taskforce’s meeting notes, Google decided to reveal the bug far earlier:
DECIDED: Ed to flip the bug on 8/24 at early morning LON time (just past the precise 8/23 4:12pm 7 day extension) then Shannon can tip people off on Fri 8am if nobody has picked it up organically.
They also discussed putting “three friendlies on it” (presumably three reporters or news outlets deemed “friendly” to Google) or passing the story to Lookout (presumably the mobile security company that often publicizes bug disclosures).
This all sounds shady on its face, but won’t Google just point out that the bug was fixed and the 90 days was no longer required? (In 2020, Google’s Project Zero team decided to start disclosing at 90 days regardless of fix status.)
