You may be asking yourself how the Federal Communications Commission’s proposal to eliminate the outrageous cable set-top box monopoly ripping off millions of consumers could be stopped. You may even be asking yourself this as you review your latest burgeoning cable bill.

This probably doesn’t come as a shock to you, but programmers, broadcasters, and big Hollywood studios can’t ask cable companies to break the law, and vice versa.

The Federal Communications Commission’s proposal to unlock the box will benefit all pay-TV viewers, but particularly rural Americans, who often rely heavily on pay-TV subscriptions for information and entertainment. Where they live, broadband may be unavailable or slow, and over-the-air TV may be hard to tune in. Under the proposal that FCC Chairman Wheeler has circulated to the other four Commissioners, rural Americans will save money on device rental fees and benefit from an upgrade to their viewing experience.

Every time I tell people about the Federal Communications Commission’s #UnlockTheBox proceeding, the reaction is always the same: It’s a no-brainer. They burst into rants about how much they hate the boxes, that they hate paying so much, and that they can’t understand why someone hasn’t done something about this cable box rip-off that results in such a lackluster product and poor service. Even as they thank heaven, the FCC, and consumer advocates for their efforts to actually fix this, they ask why it hasn’t been done sooner. It’s getting ridiculous.

Last week, Public Knowledge hosted its annual celebration honoring the dedication of those working to represent consumers in Internet protocol, intellectual property and information policy. This year we honored Shari Steele of the Electronic Frontier Foundation for information policy, Rebecca Tushnet of Georgetown Law for intellectual property, and Chip Pickering of COMPTEL for Internet protocol.