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The Internet After Aereo: How To Save Innovation From The Public Performance Right, Patrick C. Tricker

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The Supreme Court's decision in American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc. overturned the Second Circuit's rule that separate copies create separate performances without clarifying the scope of a performance. The decision creates significant ambiguity surrounding the public performance right and potentially massive liability for cloud-computing companies. Since cloud computing allows customers to run programs remotely from a company's servers, two independent customers watching different copies of the same movie from the same cloud results in the cloud conducting a public performance. This Note examines this problem, concludes that the current public performance regime has become obsolete, and proposes a …