Cloud-based storage continues to make inroads with consumers accustomed to traditional options. Google and Amazon have both released cloud music services in 2011, and Apple's long-awaited and highly-anticipated iCloud is due this fall. Bitcasa, a new underdog in the increasingly competitive cloud market war, is bringing considerable firepower to bear.
AOL's TechCrunch blog, which oversees the pro-entrepreneur CrunchFund, announced Bitcasa's premise had landed founders Tony Gauda, Joel Andren and Kevin Blackham both funding and a finalist slot in its annual Disrupt conference.
The $10/month storage solution will bring unlimited space minus any sort of visible button or tab, confirmed TechCrunch. In comparison, Apple's upcoming cloud service will offer all users 5GBs for free, but the lowest rung of its paid subscription ladder will cost $20/year and grants 15GBs. Expanding on that, one year of Bitcasa equals $120 while iCloud's yearly fee tops out at $100 for 55GBs.
TechCrunch explained that Bitcasa handles actions like syncing and dropping files differently from competitors DropBox and SkyDrive in that it doesn't actually do either:
When you save a file, Bitcasa writes those 1's and 0's to its server-side infrastructure in the cloud. It doesn't know anything about the file itself, really. It doesn't see the file's title or know its contents. It doesn't know who wrote the file. And because the data is encrypted on the client side, Bitcasa doesn't even know what it's storing.
The site also boldly claimed that those who acquire their movies and music through illicit channels need not fear reprisal from Big Media:
So if you want to cloud-enable your 80 GB collection of MP3's or a terabyte of movies (acquired mainly through torrenting, naughty you!), go ahead. Even if the RIAA and MPAA came knocking on Bitcasa's doors, subpoenas in hand, all Bitcasa would have is a collection of encrypted bits with no means to decrypt them.
It seems unlikely groups such as the RIAA would stand for such a claim. In May, Marvin Berenson, Senior Vice President of BMI, railed against cloud-based storage in an editorial directed at MP3Tunes.com, who was then being sued by EMI for possible copyright violations. MP3Tunes won the case last month.
Bitcasa is currently in beta with no concrete release date announced. However, eager folks can sign up for a shot at a trial run. (via TechCrunch)
Would you spend $10/month for unlimited cloud storage? Let us know in the comment section.
