WAITING FOR THE OLD MEN TO DIE–– The Supreme Court ruled against Aereo, a start-up from New York that offered access to streamed and recorded television channels for $8 a month. So if you’re waiting for cheap Internet TV, you’re going to have to wait a bit longer. Aereo works through thousands of small antennas that pick up broadcast television, each rented to an individual user who decides what he or she wants to watch. The Justice Department warned against stifling innovation in a brief, even though it said Aereo was clearly infringing on broadcasters copyrights. Because Aereo works by taking advantage of cloud storage, its defenders argue that clamping down on Aereo would kill the cloud computing industry, the Washington Posts Brian Fung wrote prior to the decision. This is an important and growing part of the economy, and the Supreme Court justices seemed loath in oral arguments to rule in a way that would harm the future. Its true that the Court can only rule on Aereo — its hard to avoid stifling future companies and technologies when justices dont even know what those will look like. But with investors potentially gunshy about television innovation thanks to this ruling (and all that lost Aereo money), its understandable that tech entrepreneurs would be wary of turning to Congress for protection. Small up-and-comers dont exactly have a history of prevailing over entrenched big businesses when it comes to winning the hearts and minds of legislators. m.mic/articles/92123/the-supreme-court-just-ruled-against-the-future-of-television?utm_source=Mic+Check&utm_campaign=2f3ff84205-Mic_Report_6_26_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_51f2320b33-2f3ff84205-285087385
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 20:47:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015