TV Viewers, the Cloud Computing Industry, and Internet Users Watch Supreme Court Copyright Clash

Grazed from HuffingtonPost. Author: Edward J. Black.

TV watchers and anyone who cares about cloud computing as a proven engine for economic progress should be paying close attention to the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday. It is considering what may be its most important intellectual property case this year: a dispute between ABC and other broadcasters against New York-based tech startup, Aereo. Aereo allows users to "watch live TV online… no cable required." But innovative Aereo has seen plenty of legal strings attached since its February 2012 launch in New York City.

Traditional broadcasters have fought unsuccessfully to put Aereo out of the business of enabling the public to more easily access what’s broadcast on the public’s airwaves. The resolution of this plot in the Supreme Court this month matters immediately to millions of TV viewers, but it will also foreshadow the future of access to legal content stored on the Internet…

My technology trade organization is arguing in an amicus brief with the Mozilla Corporation that the legal questions before the court may severely impact other innovative cloud computing services. If Aereo is successfully attacked, many cloud-based Internet services will be greatly endangered. The high court should not let this happen, including for reasons that extend far beyond the obvious broadcasting issues…

Read more from the source @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/edward-j-black/tv-viewers-cloud-computin_b_5185981.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

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