Baker & McKenzie's Pre-Emptive World Cup C&Ds

Baker & McKenzie have apparently been sending out blanket pre-emptive cease and desist letters to lots of websites to warn them that they will be monitoring the web for any unauthorised streaming of World Cup activity. Hilariously they've sent one to the folks at BoingBoing who don't even like sports. I detest this kind of cast-the-net-wide-and-who-cares-if-we-scare-the- innocents tactics. The theory is that it keeps honest folks honest which is baloney. It has absolutely no effect whatsoever on genuine organised commercial scale copyright infringement. And they don't really care about tweaking the noses of a few civil rights activists because they have strong PR connections to spin any responses from that direction. It's basically obnoxious behaviour. They should instead focus their considerable resources on tackling real problems in the best interests of their clients as necessary.