Brian's blog posting (now with a donation button):
"... the deadline to file a response to the lawsuit had passed
and that WhosHere had requested a motion for default judgment
(meaning that they would automatically receive everything they
had asked for - which would effectively bankrupt me..."
"The lawyers I have spoken to thus far are asking me for at
least a $10,000 retainer just to get started on the process
and I don't have those kind of resources laying around."
Compare to Brian's response in the email thread:
"I was born wealthy; I have an obscene trust fund. I assure you
that if required, I will obtain the best legal representation
for corporate litigation in the Silicon Valley. After your
last proposal, I will resist this legal action well beyond
what makes any financial sense, simply out of principal."
And, to complement this, a snippet from Judd Weiss' blog [0]:
"Quick tip: When you do engage the other side (or their
lawyer), whatever you do, never say the line “I’m taking this
all the way to trial, I don’t care what this costs me”.
Everyone says that. Everyone. That doesn’t work with someone
like me. I smell blood. “Oh really, you don’t care what this
costs you? Alright then, let’s find out how much you really
don’t care.” People who say they don’t care about the costs
often cave sooner, because they are showing that they’re weak.
They’re showing that they really don’t have much solid to
fight you with except their loudly stated tolerance for pain.
That tolerance is easy to test. And it’s usually very low when
there’s not much else but puffery to back it up. Any modestly
wise person cares about the financial effects of litigation.
Don’t try to pretend you’re stupid, or else you’re going to
look stupid."
