Breaking: internet censorship, or, is Capital One history's greatest monster?

How low can you go? Try Capital One, whose agents allegedly sent a letter to Personal Finance Digest's hosting provider telling them to remove his site from the internet.

It's unclear from PFD's post whether the letter was a "takedown notice" within the meaning of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the abuse of which is a violation of federal law ("Any person who knowingly materially misrepresents under this section—(1) that material or activity is infringing...shall be liable for any damages...incurred by the alleged infringer...who is injured by such misrepresentation, as the result of the service provider relying upon such misrepresentation..."), or merely a threatening letter. However, based on the agent's admission — in writing! — that:

The website in discussion did not host, nor hosting [sic] fraudulent content against Capital One.

It seems to me that PFD has an airtight defamation case at least against the "RSA Anti-Fraud Command Centre," whatever that is, and Capital One if RSA was actually acting as their agent in this case.

I don't have any Capital One cards, but if I did I'd shut them immediately and tell the CSR why I was doing so. In the meantime, I'm removing all links to Capital One from my permanent pages until I see an explanation for this abhorrent behavior. It's not much, but it's what I can do to show solidarity with PDF on my little corner of the web.

Read Personal Finance Digest's post for all the gruesome details.