Mailing the story:

The CableCard—that small slab that lets a TiVo tune into cable by authenticating its connection—would lose a regulatory safeguard under a bill nearing introduction in Congress. The "‘Consumer Video Device Cost Savings Act" proposes to squelch the authority of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make cable operators use CableCards in their own boxes—a rule enacted in 2007 that discourages second-class treatment of third-party devices like TiVo DVRs.