Aereo’s final Supreme Court plea: Cloud computing could be ruined
March 31, 2014
Grazed from FierceEnterpriseCommunications. Author: Scott M. Fulton III.
On first reading, it sounds like a stretch. For many legal scholars, it continues sounding like a stretch after the twelfth reading. But given the historically unique confluence of circumstances leading up to next month’s round of oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of ABC v. Aereo, it’s impossible to rule it out entirely: Aereo’s argument is that, if the distribution of programming from its cloud-based servers to its subscribers’ devices counts as a "performance"–and thus a potential copyright violation–then any distribution of media from a cloud server to those same devices should also count as "performances."
Aereo is the innovative service, backed by former TV network chief Barry Diller, that uses arrays of patented micro-antennas to capture over-the-air TV signals, and then delivers those signals through cloud servers to Internet-based clients. It’s a subscription service that can deliver (almost) live television to viewers in locales where VHF antennas and coaxial cables can’t reach…
But it’s undeniably redistributing network programming–something which networks’ parent companies usually charge for. Aereo doesn’t pay redistribution fees, arguing that it’s merely acting as an antenna-for-hire. But what does Aereo have to do with the cloud? Like many other services, Aereo uses public clouds to store programs it records from its antennas. In a conspicuous effort to comply with certain laws, even if it flies in the face of others, Aereo literally provides each customer with her own tiny, little, private antenna and her own cloud storage for both live and DVR recording. It’s unlike any other service in the world with respect to its antennas, but it’s like every other cloud service in that it’s all delivered personally…
Read more from the source @ http://www.fierceenterprisecommunications.com/story/aereos-final-supreme-court-plea-cloud-computing-could-be-ruined/2014-03-31#ixzz2xYlG4oR1
Subscribe to the CloudCow bi-monthly newsletter @ http://eepurl.com/smZeb