Data 'cloud' has no silver lining

The real trick these days is pushing all that content onto the Internet so it can follow you from device to device, eliminating the need for storage altogether.

Flurry of major companies - from Amazon

But during a flurry of major companies - from Amazon.com Inc. to Time Warner Cable Inc. to GameStop Corp. and others - are beginning to deliver innovation to give you instant access to all your media from any device, some of the creators of that content are trying to tap the brakes.

The dispute revolves around the notion of "cloud computing," a buzzword for the idea that your digital material isn't stored on a hard drive in your laptop or iPhone.

While such services have been available from smaller tech companies for years, some of the biggest names in movies, music, games and TV are now making their own push, with the financial resources and name recognition to make this innovation mainstream.

The company's Cloud Drive

Users upload your digital tunes to the company's Cloud Drive and can listen to that music from any Internet-connected computer or Google Android mobile device.

Content providers as well complained about the iPad app Time Warner Cable launched in March. It lets Time Warner's 12 million cable TV and broadband subscribers watch live streams of their television channels on their tablets. The app has been downloaded more than 360,000 times.

The user is on his home Wi-Fi network

It only works when the user is on his home Wi-Fi network, although, since the signal to tell the truth runs over the cable TV connection to the wireless router, which at the time broadcasts the transmissions over Wi-Fi.

By sending the signal over the cable TV connection in other words than over the Internet, Time Warner Cable argues, the service simply treats the iPad as another television or rather than an Internet device.

"Viacom has always negotiated rights to distribute our content based on specific technologies and devices to ensure that the unparalleled business issues, just as security, product quality and audience measurement, are properly addressed," Viacom spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew said in a statement.

Apple Inc. and Google Inc. are reportedly on the verge of releasing their own cloud-based music services. And many cable and satellite TV providers are likely to offer their own versions of Time Warner's live television app.