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I work with several Russian folks. As they tell it, if you open a business in Russia, you end up paying bribes or "protection money" to mafia and government officials, just to keep your doors open.

As it turns out, we have this in the US also.

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A business in Russia has a somewhat fixed number of people threatening it. And if it is able to make deals with them, it can function, sort of. Whereas there is no limit to the number of patent trolls that can threaten a software business, and no limit on how much they can demand or how much havoc they can wreak.

A fixed number of people with a limit on what they can demand? Where do you get this from? Either way, it is still different in the sense that in Russia you'll get threatened with guns and not lawsuits.

Well, you know, I do not live in Russia, so perhaps you can correct me. But here in North America, the kind of people who threaten people with guns for protection have territories and do not take kindly to random people threatening their "customers." So there is a limit of sorts on how many people with guns you have to deal with.

Similar to Sicilian culture in the 1900s, still in place (somewhat) today.

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