Storm clouds and silver linings - Copyright issues for users accessing Media Content from the 'Internet of Things' - See more at: http://www.fieldfisher.com/publications/2014/09/storm-clouds-and-silver-linings-copyright-issues-for-users-accessing-med

The legal issues thrown out by the cloud, or cloud computing, are regularly analysed and commented on, but the concept of the cloud is constantly evolving and re-visiting these issues, or looking at them from different perspectives is therefore a useful exercise despite the range of commentary already available.

In the technical sense, an agreed definition of the cloud seems to be the provision of storage solutions for entities or individuals to keep data, content, information, software etc remote from that entity's or individual's own computing systems. Looking at it from this perspective, legal commentary often focusses on regulatory and data protection/privacy issues. From a service provider's perspective these are certainly incredibly important considerations. But from a user's perspective they are only one of many legal issues to contend with (either knowingly or unknowingly).

First, what does a user think "the cloud" is. The user experience is to switch on the computer or tablet, connect to the internet, and look for stuff. This might be content from the BBC iPlayer, or Netflix, or Amazon Instant Video, or Spotify; it might be to download content from the user's own prior iTunes (or other e-retailer) purchases stored in the cloud, or as a result of a new purchase; it might be to access or download content from a myriad of other websites, some well-known like YouTube, Twitter or Twitch, others not so well known (or not known at all - just thrown out by the search engine), and often not knowing quite what that content is until the content is opened or downloaded. This is the user experience and the user does not really pay much attention to when and whether they are straying from one type of offering to another, provided he or she gets the "stuff" they are looking for. In media content terms, I suppose this falls within the developing concept of the "internet of things".

So when the user accesses this cloud (in the broadest sense of things) or internet of things, the user is stepping into a minefield of legal issues. Copyright infringement is just one of the many pitfalls. The position of people who post things on the internet is pretty clear: if they post content which they don't own or have an appropriate licence to exploit, they are infringing the copyright of the owner.[1] The position of the service provider that provides the platform that enables the content to be posted is also clear; in broad terms it is not liable for copyright...