Pilotage did send me a pm stating some of the difficulties he had in compiling the 450 kg microlight article I referred to which was nice of him. He stressed the fear of companies taking legal action several times - as he has in this thread.
My response is what a load of boll**ks!
Legal action only works when what is written is defamatory or intended to damage. If it is factually correct then any legal action can be laughed at.
I suspect it is much much more about advertising. Disgrunted manufacturer does not advertise latest wonderplane which in 5 years time is no longer a microlight in magazine that highlights this fact? I doubt that individually it could have much effect, but given that so many of these machines are so limited the cumulative effect could be quite large. It is the editorial fear of cutting a revenue line that I suspect largely determines the near total lack of criticism of anything produced by people who sell things. Which was something Pilot certainly was not scared of in the past.
Then of course there are the 'flight tests' where having praised the flying properties of this excellent machine, coincidence, coincidence it is for sale..........