The N.A.A.C.P., which is suing gun manufacturers and distributors, argues that the analysis helps show that the industry has long known that its distribution policies permit guns to reach criminals.

After suing the makers and distributors of the file-sharing software programs, the record industry last year began to take aim at people who share music files, in hopes of creating a deterrent effect.

When the emblem evolved into a million-dollar business, Evolution Design began threatening to sue distributors of look-alike and derivative products (like a Jewish "gefilte" fish).

Other suits have been filed by individual victims and by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which sued 165 gun makers and distributors.

In October 1999 the California State Attorney General sued 13 key manufacturers and distributors over lead content.

Terry Bourke later sued producer Alan Spires, production company John Powell Productions and distributors Filmways for $6,130 in unpaid wages.

Any threat to press freedom came, not from Goldsmith, but from the law which allowed him to sue distributors of libel-prone magazines.

The amendment defined pornography as a civil rights violation against women, and allowed women who claimed harm from pornography to sue the producers and distributors in civil court for damages.

It copyrighted the opulent box in which Amarige is packaged and began suing distributors and retailers for, in effect, selling the box without Givenchy's permission.