Redlasso is a popular service that provides access to US television about an hour or two after it's aired and allows invited bloggers to "clip" segments of no more than 10 minutes each. The clips are then available to be shared on websites in an embeddable format similar to YouTube. The aim of Redlasso is to help bloggers comment on noteworthy events, and they maintain that short clips of television content fall under the "fair use" doctrine, which is protected under the first amendment.
The television networks have brought a legal injunction against Redlasso to ensure that their content is not distributed online. Redlasso has had to shut down access to all bloggers, but they have business customers and will hopefully be able to continue in some capacity while they work to establish relationships with the networks:
In light of recent legal actions by two networks, Redlasso (www.redlasso.com) announced today that it has no alternative but to suspend blogger access to its video search and clipping Beta site for the immediate future. The company will continue to operate and provide services to its business and Radio To Web clients such as Greater Media and XM Satellite Radio.
The now-suspended Beta site provides bloggers with online broadcast content tools that enables them to exercise their first amendment rights to comment on newsworthy events, by searching blogger-selected TV and radio segments and creating limited duration clips for usage in blog posts. In addition to the Beta site, Redlasso also offers two other services which will continue. The first is a solution for businesses that allows them to track and clip content for internal use. The second service, Radio To Web, is an on-line platform that allows each radio station client to search, clip, and upload its content to its own web site and share that content online.
“We are very disappointed in the actions of select networks. We believe we have always acted within the law and have been respectful of the networks’ rights. Unfortunately, they have forced our hand and are denying the blogging community access to the Redlasso platform that beneficially tracks the usage of newsworthy clips across the Web,” said Ken Hayward, CEO of Redlasso. “Redlasso’s goal is to develop a platform that provides content owners and bloggers a viable solution to tracking and monetizing content online, not to engage in lawsuits. In the eight months the Beta site has been in operation, we have built wide brand awareness and equity amongst the blogger and media communities. The wide spread use of our tools and platform demonstrates that the Redlasso model is a simple and elegant solution for all content owners to track and monetize content usage on the Web; content that would otherwise be untraceably spread across the Internet and used for free.”
Hayward added, “We plan to continue our conversations with all content providers during this usage suspension, with the goal of establishing formal partnerships that will be beneficial to the content owners and blogging community.”
Redlasso’s suspended Beta site is simply a tool that permits the blogging community to search blogger selected content via keywords, enabling them to find and clip the limited duration vignettes on which they wish to comment and play on their blogs. Clip usage by bloggers is an exercise of first amendment rights to provide social commentary on newsworthy events. Other uses of the clips by bloggers are prohibited contractually by Redlasso. The company also employs sophisticated technology to make inappropriate practices difficult.
[From Corp.Redlasso.com]
I'm an American and am married to a German guy and have lived in Europe for nearly three years. Redlasso provided me access to US television that I would otherwise have no way of viewing at all - and believe me, I tried. (I wanted to install something called a "Slingbox" on my parents television, but due to various logistical issues this wasn't possible.) With Redlasso I was able to view shows and report firsthand on celebrity interviews and news. It's been a valuable tool for our site in the last six months and Celebitchy will most definitely have less coverage of television-based celebrity interviews and news due to this ruling.
I've communicated with several different people at Redlasso and they've all been extremely friendly, nice and helpful. The service is free and they had no reason to help me out, but they always went above and beyond in making sure I was able to use their service.
This has wide sweeping ramifications not only for arguably frivolous entertainment coverage, but especially for political bloggers in light of the upcoming US election. Sports bloggers, fashion bloggers, tech bloggers, and just about anyone who writes about current news could use Redlasso to view and cover television content. It is extremely short sighted of the networks to bring legal measures against Redlasso instead of working with them. They want their content stuck on a box in the living room where it's more difficult for people to talk about it online, share parts of it with others and give their opinions. If they do put it online, they want to control exactly how its distributed.
The educated and high-earning viewers advertisers seek are all online and they're impatient with the limitations of television. Redlasso was pretty classy in their press release and didn't mention the networks that are fighting their service, but they are NBC, CBS, and Fox. NBC is an advertiser of ours and they've been decent about making clips available online. They can't hold a candle to Redlasso, though. Look for Redlasso to be replaced by offshore equivalents that don't even try to work with the networks. We'll see how well television fares in the future when they try and control the Internet. You can already view just about any show you want to streaming online, and those sites are easy to find and impossible for the networks to stop.
Here are some good articles about Redlasso and their service along with the legal issues:
- Shutting down Redlasso will lead to the same media chaos that's affecting the music industry [Always On]
- Redlasso President talks about their position in regards to fair use [Philebrity.com
- Is Redlasso the new Napster? [Jetlaw Blog]
- How Redlasso works [Download Squad]
[All links via Redlasso]
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