The Computer & Communications Industry Association (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!) and Mozilla tell the Supreme Court that if it finds against Aereo, it would threaten cloud computing.
"The dramatic expansion of the cloud computing sector, bringing with it real benefits previously imagined only in science fiction," they said in an amicus brief, "depends upon an interpretation of the Copyright Act that allows adequate breathing room for transmissions of content."
That room includes not interpreting a one-to-one transmission from a unique copy as a public performance.
Aereo provides access to such transmissions of TV station content over the web via remote antennas for each subscriber.
The companies also said that it would be better for the court to defer to Capitol Hill for guidance.
"[O]nly Congress can definitively resolve this issue, which will likely recur given the numerous other providers of services functionally identical to that provided by Aereo’s technology that already exist. Petitioners’ request to redraw the line between public and private performances is thus one that is best made to Congress, not this Court, and one that Congress will likely address."
