Misunderstanding Legal Process
I wonder how often things like this (“Dear Sir, calling StarForce ‘Anti-copying malware’ is a good enough cause to press charges and that is what our corporate lawyer is busy doing right now”) actually have their desired effect. I suppose it might work in cases where the recipient is actually dumber than the writer.
On the plus side, that sort of letter could certainly create declaratory judgment jurisdiction; the recipient could turn around and sue the sender for a declaration that they have done nothing unlawful.
I also wonder whether companies like StarForce actually have a “corporate lawyer,” and if that person is aware of these emails. I sure hope not.
Update: Apparently this story has been slashdotted. I try not to post about things that also appear on slashdot, on the theory that most people will have seen the story somewhere else at that point, but this entry went up before the slashdot article. A commenter makes a good point, though, that Cory Doctorow (the recipient of the abovementioned threat) is Canadian and lives in London—something the writer of the threat seems to have no clue about.