> may take the trouble to actually make a small statement however

Another move in the direction of political correctness and making decisions according to optics. Have you considered valid business purposes for a company doing a particular act or are you just deciding that everyone thinks this was a "scumbag" action?

Supporting a non-profit organization working for a more secure Internet could easily fall under a "valid business purpose" for a site like HN.

HN's entire business mandate, such as it is, seems to be to encourage technological growth in the interest of profiting tangentially off the growing pie.

Edit: as for whether Comodo had a "valid business purpose" for the action, sure, in the same sense that patent trolls have a valid business purpose. Read this statement by their CEO: https://forums.comodo.com/general-discussion-off-topic-anyth...

It's surreal. He tries to shift the blame to Let's Encrypt for choosing 90 days as their default certificate expiration date, somehow implying that 90 days is Comodo IP.

Have you considered valid personal purposes for shoplifting or are you just deciding deciding that everyone thinks this was a "scumbag" action?