Cloud computing is already a big part of our lives; though, often, we don’t realise we are using it. Partly, no doubt, that is the intention. The name itself encourages fuzzy thinking and its users are blissfully unaware of what lies behind the image on the screen.

Cloud computing has been around, as an idea, for decades – since the 1950s, in fact – and has been used widely in practical popular services such as Hotmail, Facebook, YouTube, Gmail and Dropbox for many years now. By definition, a cloud computing service is any service that allows you to load information into a cyber locker that is located elsewhere from the computing hardware you operate.The new services have brought with them new ways of copying and storing text, photos, films and music. All acts capable of infringing the Copyright Act, if done without permission or authorised without permission. When you load information into a cloud, do you still own the copyright on that material? By loading it, are you already infringing copyright? And, more precisely, can the person who stored it for you make copies of that material? And who is legally responsible for any infringements associated with the upload and sharing of that material?