when it comes to the little guy been screwed over by the ones with the cash to pay lawyers i don't think the usa has any monopoly in this area.

my favourite case of the big guy losing despite the resources they bring to bear is the mclibel case (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLibel_Case)

Thanks for the link to McLibel, somehow I've never heard of it. You might argue though that this case ended positively creating precedents. The small guys won 60k (from government) after being fined for 40k (which McDonald didn't even collect). OTOH it dragged on for 20 years... But being right in the end is priceless!

The loser paying for the winner's costs might alleviate the problem a little.

I'm not so sure. If I have 100 million and I'm suing a student and lose..my costs might be what $30,000? $50,000? and like the MPAA lawyer said, it might take 10 years.

I reminds me of the story from "a flash of genius". Yeah, he got a ton of money in the end, but he lost everything in his life that was important to him over the course of 10 years.