okie's first post (2.04) sums it up well.

And that is why I (not beinmg any kind of lawyer) think that, unless courts in America are quite remarkably weird (which is I suppose not unlikely of courts anywhere),there isn't much chance that an attempt to drag things into court at this stage would get anywhere. In other words the original, letter was a bullying bluff.

But I'm a bit irritated by "A publisher" S/he admits that the original bullying letter was "nasty" and inappropriate. But then s/he goes on to say "I can only make suggestions - at the end of the day, I cannot tell them how to do their job."

If you are paying someone to do a job and they do it in an incompetent way that involves insulting and offending people, (especially people whom you respect, and whom you value - and "A publisher" would have us believe that that is how he or she sees tends to see Mudcat), you don't just shrug and say "I cannot tell them how to do their job". Not if it's a bloke you get in to fix your plumbing, someone you are paying to take your dog for a work or some shyster lawyer.