Listen up, you Infotel punks. You are all a bunch of low-class, low-budget cowards. Don't like me saying that? Send me a letter and I will respond with a B&P 17200 action in Fresno Superior Court.

Justene Adamec has been served with an official lawyer letter - ooh, scary - for comments left at her blog by some outfit named Infotel.

In my experience - and I was involved in a case which resulted in several people doing federal time for setting up a Ponzi scheme - people who resort to threatening letters at the drop of a hat to stifle speech are more likely than not involved in a scam. The usual scenario is that the scam reaches a ragged end, at which point the scam-artists need to point to someone for bringing down the business. Further, legitimate businesses want to fix problems with unhappy customers because they want repeat businesses. Scam-artists want to get out of town with the loot and know that there will be no repeat business.

By threatening suits in a systematic fashion, Infotel is probably engaging in "unfair business practices" as defined in California Business and Professions Code Section 17200. Further, if Infotel is threatening to recover punitive damages, it may be opening itself to an abuse of process counterclaim.

Infotel is a public entity engaging in public activities in the public arena. Infotel knows that it has no claim for defamation. Infotel is simply and illegally trying to stifle legitimate public discussion about its activities - the very thing that the First Amendment was intended to protect.