Had an interesting e-mail exchange today with an old colleague who seemed to need some legal advice. Normally I beg off -- unless it's an area I know a lot about, I don't ever want to cause a person additional legal trouble by giving half-baked advice.

"Get a lawyer," is my usual less-than-helpful response.

But it soon became clear that this friend was less interested in protecting his legal position and more interested in making himself into an absurd nuisance, damn the consequences.

For this, I can help.

He shared with me a cease and desist letter, sent to his London home from a very serious-sounding NYC law firm that very much wanted him to stop using an Internet domain name that vaguely resembled a trademark of the law firm's very serious-sounding corporate client. He showed me his proposed response and I laughed heartily until I realized that he truly meant to send it -- then I laughed even harder.

I gave him some pointers -- not legal advice, mind you... more like non-legal advice... certainly not illegal advice. But to anyone whose aim is to throw caution to the wind and stick it to da' man in a futile fizzle of adolescent defiance -- I am at your service!

The language was settled and he's off to his own devices now, assuredly hoping that they give him access to e-mail in WTO prison because there ain't no way I'm going to visit his ass during his sentence.