Comcast sues the FCC for forcing them to play fair
It's really easy to lose sight of the intentions of the gov't. This is especially true, when it's been so long since the law was passed by congress that some of us at Engadget were still in grade school. You see, over ten years ago Congress passed the Communications Act of 1996 and one of the many intentions was to free consumers from the hold that cable co's had on them and create an open system -- very much like the way you can bring your own phone to your land line. As you'd expect, big cable has been dragging their feet every step of the way and it doesn't surprise us that they haven't given up yet. And, in the spirit of protecting their business Comcast is suing the FCC for forcing them to deploy cable boxes without integrated security (CableCARD). You might be asking, "on what grounds?" and the answer is kinda silly. Comcast is upset because these boxes cost more than their old boxes and the FCC issued waivers to smaller cable co's to help lessen the burden -- as if ten years notice wasn't enough time to prepare. On the other hand, we applaud the FCC for standing up to them and have witnessed the benefits first hand, as every cable co' that didn't get a waiver now supports M-Cards that help reduce a TiVo HD owners monthly expenses, while those with waivers are stuck renting two single stream cards.
