Cloud Computing: Aereo’s court case chills startup cash

Grazed from TheBostonHerald.  Author: Jordan Graham.

Aereo’s landmark Internet broadcast Supreme Court case is casting a pall over venture funding for the cloud computing industry, experts are warning.  “The mere existence of this will make it much harder to raise funding, because the risks have gone up,” said Michael Davies, chairman and founder of Endeavor Partners, a Cambridge consulting firm for technology companies.

Last week, the Supreme Court heard the case in which Aereo defends its right to grab television broadcast signals and stream TV through the cloud to users for a small fee of about $8 a month — and without paying retransmission fees. Aereo, run by founder and CEO Chet Kanojia, contends its antennas are no different than old-fashioned rabbit ears and its service constitutes what is legally known as a “private performance.” Broadcasters contend the business is offering a “public performance” and the company is violating copyright…

“If putting stuff in the cloud and playing it back is deemed to be a ‘public performance,’ that would have a horrible chilling effect on the ability of people to use the cloud to store content and media,” said Davies.  The case is do-or-die for the industry, experts say, warning of a critical slow-down in investment and innovation in the cloud — a loose term for data storage and server space located off-site…

Read more from the source @ http://bostonherald.com/business/technology/technology_news/2014/04/aereo_s_court_case_chills_startup_cash