Sadly, even in a court of law, could you imagine trying to prove none of what Synergistic says is true? You and I would be like “Let’s setup a blind test.” Whereby Synergistic lawyers would demand the court rent out Carnegie Hall, supply the best equipment, make sure the cables sit untouched for 30 days (.
I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that when it comes to matters of interpreting scientific and professional facts (at least in the US) , the court/jury can only consider testimony provided by expert witnesses. I was kind of hoping one of the lurking attorneys here would come out and educate us on this more, and I'm happy to be corrected. Anyway, in other words, the plaintiff/defender teams can't conduct a scientific experiment and allow the jury to draw conclusions. Rather the expert witnesses called would need to be the ones to give their opinion on whether xyz speaker cables made an audible difference.
Expert witnesses are not always scrupulous and even then, it shouldn't be hard to find a laundry list of credentialed "expert" engineers who would testify stating that xyz cables make a difference. Or they could come up with scenarios where it does. In fact there are AES papers that demonstrate measurable differences in frequency response just based on ordinary differences in inductance and DCR in available cables.
If it boiled down to a battle of experts it then shouldnt be hard to rally up the majority of the entire audio industry to help fund the team on the side of "cables make a difference." After all, how many millions of dollars are on the line across manufacturers and retailers if the idea that cables/electronics make almost no audible difference at all? They would never allow that to happen. And this would be a very closely watched case by a billion dollar industry.
Hopefully the relevant attorney is being honest about how it would play out, rather than billing by the hour.
Now harassment is completely different. If prank phone calls, excessive online taunts, and unauthorized use of family photos (a minor at that) don't qualify, I don't know what does. I can't imagine how distressing this must be for Gene. I'm upset just reading about the whole ordeal. And I happen to like the content offered on the AH website.