NTCA are a bunch of morons and Boxee is awesome...

http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/16/boxee-and-the-ncta-debate-if-clearqam-is-good-for-us/

Boxee gets on my bad side sometimes for abandoning its aspirations for the ultimate PC media center software, but I can't argue with them on this one.  Engadget caught wind of the NCTA trying to talk the FCC into allowing them to encrypt all of its channels, including the basic ones like CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, etc because it would circumvent truck rolls and allow customers to execute more efficient self-installs.  Boxee is fighting back, because currently the only way to decrypt said channels would be with a cable card.  Anybody that's tried to get rid of the box from the cable company in the last five years knows how to sum that up in one word: Sucks.

Here are the reasons why cable card stinks and why it shouldn't be allowed to do more than it already does:

 - Operators charge a fee per cable card, just as though you were renting a box anyway
 - They function as one way devices, which means no guide, no On Demand
 - They fail to function properly in most devices

Cable card is basically just a way for your cable company to keep charging you for nothing.  Even though they don't actually provide you anything, like a full featured HD cable box, they charge you the full rate anyway as an "access" fee.  On top of that, anybody (especially myself) knows that having a cable card installed means a hell of a time is ahead.  Installers usually have to bring double or triple the amount of cards they intend to install.  It's a rare thing that a card works the first time, because there is no standard for compatibility.  Firmware varies by TV, media center, TiVo, etc, and there's no guarentee it will even work at all.  If it does, by an act of God, manage to work while the installer is there, there's a halfway decent chance it will drop its authorized channels within a week.

So why does the NCTA want ClearQAM killed?  Its because they don't care about you or your entertainment experience.  They just want to protect the bottom line of companies like Charter, WOW, Comcast, and Time Warner, because without them, they wouldn't exist anyway.  Small companies like Boxee stand to lose as much as the consumer does, because if a small time company or home brew media center setup can't tune in their basic cable channels without a barrier to entry cost of $250, then they might as well go out of business, and you might as well take that system apart and sell it on Craigslist.

Then again, maybe I'm wrong and you like your cable company's DVR missing your shows, freezing, and rewinding into infinity until you pull the plug.  At least you had better, because a world without ClearQAM is a world without a choice past what they give you.