[prawn]

If he's confident in his reading of the contractual agreement, what's the issue?

My read of the comment was as a negotiating point - they want to encourage a result but not make a legal demand. i.e., he can just ignore it if he doesn't have any consideration for The Intercept brand that they share.

[zaroth]

They have no legal basis for a demand. All they have is threats.

And we know he was confident in his reading, as he went ahead and published.

[watwut]

It was not that and he even published that draft. If this reads as threat to you, then it will be hard to communicate with you anything negative without making you feel threatened.