Maybe it's because greedy capitalists price everything twice as high as it's actually worth...

The cable companies are the ones that have to change. They may lose all their media business and be stuck just pumping bits through their Internet tubes. I get my phone from Vonage, and many movies from Roku/Netflix. That is just the start of where things are headed. The concept of broadcasting at a specific time, and having schedules is becoming quite quaint. The cable companies can compete for a piece of mny content dollar just like any company connected to the Internet. They may have attractive bundles that makes it worth while, but their current business model is headed out the door.

If you have ever touched one of their Web sites and caught their cookie, your tracks can be followed into unexpected places. This data is a gold mine for them, if they can figure out how to sell it without pissing off users with how much they know.

When I bought my ROKU, I was just about to purchase HBO from Time Warner because I couldn't find anything good to watch on TV. Granted, ROKU/Netflix has a limited selection, but its enough to get by. As content gets better and the masses start going to steaming video, the cable companies get positioned as bit slingers and cut out of the middle of the content cash flow. I'm all for that after the high subscription fees I've paid for crap, but Time Warner, Comcast, Verizon and others are not going to stand for this attack on their revenue streams. Not only do they lose premium subscription revenue, but the streaming is going to consume way more of their bandwidth - especially as better quality HD becomes available. The cable companies will shape the bandwidth or start charging by the gigabit, and that is just a start. Their model is to attack by creating regulations that favor their business model - and that will slow down Netflix and others.

I'm already suspecting Time Warner of shaping ROKU/Netflix traffic. My ROKU/Netflix movies start out at "four dot" quality and quickly shift to "two dot" quality - with the ROKU reporting 0.5 megabits/second throughput at the same time my PC can get 5-7 megabits/second to various speed test sites. ROKU is unusable until the throughput issue is fixed - but neither ROKU, Netflix or Time Warner has determined what the problem is.

They gotta do what they gotta do. The problem is, a claim of probable cause by the border patrol is tainted when they find something that is not border related. It should be a free pass if your special crime is not directly related to their duties. States do not need the feds acting as their cops, beyond that special airport zone. Isn't that partly what started the last civil war?