There are about to be some very unhappy Comcast customers scattered around the country—because the cable provider has just begun to notify customers in several of its markets that it's about to start encrypting basic cable data. In other words: time for a new box, suckers.

If you're a Comcast customer, congrats. Every episode of every season of some shows you've probably been meaning to catch up on are free on Xfinity until the 31st.

By now, you've heard enough about the Copyright Alert System to know what it is and, perhaps, how useless it could be. But what the hell will it look like in reality?

Comcast will buy the 49-percent of NBCUniversal it doesn't already own from GE for 16.7 billion clams. That's right, Kabletown is bigger than ever now. Regulatory approval for Comcast's purchase of 51-percent of the company cleared last year—now the cable and media giant owns the whole shebang.

If you want blisteringly fast home internet, the best option is currently Verizon's FiOS Quantum which gives you a connection capable of speeds of up to 300 Mbps. Not wanting to be outdone, though, Comcast is reported to be preparing its own super-fast home internet which can manage 305 Mbps.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Justice Department is looking into whether the country's huge cable companies are using data caps on their internet services to keep streaming video upstarts from taking hold. Is anti-trust action against the giants imminent?

Copyright holders like the RIAA and MPAA think it's their god-given right to sue BitTorrent users into eternal poverty for illegal file sharing. Well Comcast has had enough. The company is refusing to comply with subpoenas for user data. That's right, Comcast is sticking up for the little guy.

In a welcome move that Comcast says is due to our changing Internet habits (streaming, streaming, streaming), Comcast is upping its monthly data caps from 250GB to 300GB. Nice! That's definitely less awful. This is the first increase in data cap size since Comcast introduced it back in 2008.

Last month, Comcast made a controversial decision to exclude their TV-on-demand service for Xbox 360 from data caps. That's sparked many complaints from users of other TV services over the implications for net neutrality—and now the CEO of Netflix is wading in.

Today Microsoft further entrenched the Xbox 360 as the best alternative to a cable box with three new Kinect-capable video apps including on-demand content from Comcast, HBO GO, and MLB.TV.