Comcast security vendor tries to shut down anti-Comcast site

Comcast is standing down amid a kerfuffle with a consumer watchdog group, started when one of the cable company’s vendors tried to shut down the group’s website with a cease-and-desist letter.

According to advocacy group Fight for the Future, it received a cease-and-desist letter from LookingGlass Cyber Security Center, a Comcast vendor, which said the group’s Comcastroturf.com website violates Comcast copyright. 

The site, the vendor said, uses “domain names that are identical or confusingly similar to someone else's trademark," the letter said.

"Our client is... prepared to resolve this matter amicably and without pursuing its claims for damages, but only if you immediately comply with its demands," the letter said.

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Fight for the Future has included an image of the letter in a press release. Ars Technica was among the first to receive the group’s announcement. 

Comcast told Ars Technica it would take no further action.

And for its part, Fight for the Future doesn’t look like it’s going to cease or desist.

The comcastroturf.com website allows consumers to see if their names have been used by bots to file anti-Title II commentary to the FCC. 

“This is exactly why we need Title II net neutrality protections that ban blocking, throttling, and censorship,” said Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future, in a statement. 

If FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to dismantle the 2015 Title II rules is enacted, Greer said, “There would be nothing preventing Comcast from simply blocking sites like Comcastroturf.com that are critical of their corporate policies. It also makes you wonder what Comcast is so afraid of? Are their lobbying dollars funding the astroturfing effort flooding the FCC with fake comments that we are encouraging Internet users to investigate?”