Amazon did get a lot of flak back then, there was a boycott. And Amazon, thankfully, stopped its lawsuits. Meanwhile we have seen an entire industry - mobile - become a patent battleground, so people are more concerned now then then.

I do see the point that threatening employees to leave or be blacklisted is... disturbing. I think we should put pressure on Yahoo and its employees to change Yahoo's ways, but not like that.

Edit: Google doesn't stand to gain from this. Well sure, in the short term Facebook's loss is Google's gain. But if patent lawsuits become a norm in the internet industry, Google in fact has perhaps the most to lose.