Aereo's Supreme Court Smackdown Won't Harm Apple iCloud Or Others In The Cloud Computing Industry

The cloud computing industry is breathing a sigh of relief. Although the US Supreme Court has declared Internet streaming startup Aereo illegal, this decision will not harm cloud computing technology, as many in that industry feared it would.

That's because SCOTUS specifically said that the ruling doesn't apply to other technologies "not before them" such as cloud computing.

The fear among other companies was that if Aereo lost, it could have unintended consequences for similar technology, such as cloud storage for songs and movies. But not only did the court say that cloud computing was not covered, it also said that there's a difference between storing files in the cloud that a consumer has already "lawfully acquired" and paying Aereo to watch broadcast TV on the Internet.