TCM
(By the way, I include my ideological usual-ally Black Unicorn on this point. I'm chagrinned that he so quickly and on so many issues has made statements about filing lawsuits--for defamation, for "false advertising" (!!!!), and so on. Not only is this counter to the views many of us hold--I think I sense the zeitgeist of the list--but it is supremely ineffective, as none of these threatened lawsuits ever seem to materialize, thankfully. Using the threat of a lawsuit as a rhetorical debating strategy is not effective.)
heh, I find Unicorn's zeal to sue anyone for anything quite comical and suggestive of a high degree of immaturity. but as to your point, the recent Forbes article on Bidzos makes it clear that weilding a legal sword alone can be used quite shrewdly, strategically, and effectively. the article is quite interesting in how it suggests RSA was largely built on threatening to sue people. of course this is slightly skewed, because RSA has done things like software development that the article didn't mention. actually the lesson seems to be that if you have a software patent, the law can be your friend (esp. if you are a business), but if you want to sue someone who calls you names, the law is not very accommodating. sorry, Unicorn, maybe you can lobby to fix this little deficiency. <g>