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]
Update: We reported that CBS, NBC and Fox were suing Redlasso, but that seems to have been incorrect. Most reports have just NBC and Fox filing a copyright infringement claim against Redlasso.
Excellent article, CB. The arrogance and lack of foresight on the part of the networks is astounding. As a bid to control who can view what and where, it will backfire majorly. Talk about cutting off their noses to spite their faces.
On the issue of using clips here – in your words, for ‘frivolous entertainment’ purposes, I’d say it’s just as important and key as on other more ‘weighty’ sites since so many people now don’t watch TV news, don’t read newspapers, don’t give two craps about politics, don’t discuss issues of the day, but can be exposed to them on sites like this. I know clips are not essential to getting a story across but sometimes, the resulting commentry from a clip can engage people in discussions they’re unlikely to have otherwise and have an impact beyond the celeb-associated story in which the clip appears. Gossip sites (Perez, sit down) can be just as educational in their own way as high-brow political and current affairs ones.
Gotta agree with geronimo. The networks are shooting themselves in the foot. People do not sit around the TV anymore. I havn’t watched TV in years, which is why I never post on reality TV stars like Montag or the Kardashians. I go to the net to find what interests me when it suits ME, not the broadcasters
this seems sinister – why do the networks want to control information anyway – aren’t they ‘free to air’ so that anybody can watch them? They already only give us part of the story and so the net had to be invented
If they had any smarts they’d start streaming over the internet. Don’t they realise if they did this, they, and their spin off websites would eventually have a huge chunk of net traffic as it does the printed press. It’s a far more effective way to dominate opinion. I cant help feeling this retrograde attempt at censorship is at the behest of their political masters: Politics and media being so enmeshed
sorry for the rambling post but this is bad —-very bad
CB said it best
I think the television networks will win this one. They are all powerful. Stinks.
Agree with the above. I also live outside the US, and I find that the network’s own sites are usually blocked for non-US viewers – so from my point of view, Redlasso is offering a product the networks have chosen not to.
Besides, there’s value in providing just a short clip of the 30 significant seconds of a talk show. I really don’t want to sit through 60 minutes of The View to find the one brief instant where someone says something relevant.
I think the only way this will really effect the networks is if people react. I don’t watch tv, save for cnn,but it’s been a while since the networks made most of there money from people watching- dvd sales are the way of the future and they are just trying to protect there sales.
However blocking there own sites from playing out side of the states is going to hurt them- who buys dvds of shows you haven’t seen?
Maybe that’s the problem, people only wanting to watch clips and not the shows themselves, hence an advertising issue. Who’ll bother advertising if their advert won’t be seen or watched? I bet that’s at the root of it. Money usually is.
geronimo……you’re probably right about the money thing. Then why don’t the networks offer their content pay per view to a GLOBAL internet audience? An audience of hundreds and hundreds of millions of INSTANT viewers It’s not rocket science. If they keep the prices low, they literally could not lose. I’d pay a SMALL amount (under $2) to check out a show I’d seen on a savvy advert, and I’d pay that small amount to go back the next week if I liked it. Couple that with merchandise and spin off websites (and the advertising revenue they bring in) and There’s BILLIONS to be made by the networks this way. Give us what we want (and not what you want) and we’ll pay thru the nose for it
Am I in dreamland? 😐
Yeah, not sure that would work there Xiaoecho. You can download a premier episode of most TV series within 20-30 minutes of broadcast from torrent sites. Most torrent sites are physically located in nations that are not signatories to international copyright treaties – and will likely never be shut down.
Why would someone pay a network to watch something they could have for free right away already? The networks missed the internet boat already.
Of course advertising is at the root of it. I work in television and if people go to a third-party website to watch tv shows then ad revenues at the station I work at drops and layoffs will be inevitable. If it gets to the point that few people are watching, all local stations will shut down leading to no local news. Now, I’m not against sites like redlasso per se but to post clips that are 10 minutes long would mean that five clips = a full length tv show. The only time that a clip ought to be that length is if the content really is controversial in some manner or being talked about. As long as sites like these only take small clips and doesn’t hide behind the “ten minutes or less” rule to piece together full length programs then I’m totally fine.
I also agree that tv networks need to think to the future and realize that people want to watch tv on their own timetable. PVRs and the small amount of programming on the Internet are both changing viewers’ habits. Networks and local stations need to work together to come up with a way to provide television that isn’t on a specific timetable and still maintain revenue.
Xiaoecho, a lot of US TV series are sold overseas as “packages” – ie to get one good series, the non-US broadcaster has to buy a package that also includes several mediocre series. Allowing internet access to their shows outside the US would kill off that sweet deal.
Scott………I use the sites you refer to but only because the networks have given me no choice.
I think it would work for the same reason people buy subscription TV and rent DVD’s – convenience
The vast majority of people can’t be bothered stuffing around chasing the black market – they want ease of accessibility
CandyKay…….yeah and what a relief for the hapless consumer not to have to put up with all that mediocre off season shite – not to mention the producers would have to lift their game —-but their attitude seems to be “They’ll watch what we tell them to” The internet has changed all that
In Canada we have the US networks available to us but the content on the websites is blocked.
I don’t watch the networks much (just The Office and reruns of Arrested Development) which run on Canadian stations anyway but if I operated an entertainment blog and couldn’t get access to it I would be some pissed off.
Does anyone know of a good site that explains torrents and how they work? I’ve not ventured there but would like to.
That sucks. I studied abroad in Italy for a while, and when I got back I found I really missed local Italian TV, so I found this site that has hundreds of links to live feeds worldwide. There are well over 300 US stations.
http://wwitv.com/portal.htm
Hang in there, Celebitchy! I read your site every day, for the last few months it has been celebitchy that I click on to read first thing when I go online for the day, although all this time I’ve been going online using my Blackberry as an online access tool, and only today – this very morning, in fact, what irony!! – my BF installed high-speed internet access here in our new house. The same day this shit happens! What I mean to say is, I could never click on the youtube or Redlasso live feed things anyway, before, only read the articles and look at the photographs. I’m loving finally being able to watch the Cute Overload youtube videos finally, but all this time I never missed out on reading my insanely addictive pop culture gossip here.
But, now it’ll be harder for you all to write up-to-the-moment blogs about current events from television, that I do understand. All I can say is, hang in there! As my old English Granddad used to say, “Something’s bound to turn up,” meaning, it’ll all work out well in the end. We hope.
Red lasso never seemed to work on my laptop so I’m not too bummed.
Television’s primary source of revenue is advertising, and until the networks find a way of matching that revenue through another source, we have to expect them to be protective of their product and the means by which it is distributed. Giving your product away for free when people in general want it enough to pay for it (either by purchasing the program or sitting through the commercials) doesn’t make good business sense.
I do think they need to hammer out the details of non-US online viewing. The networks, while understandably protective of their product, are not necessarily in tune with the wants and needs of their consumers. Their tried and true model of moneymaking doesn’t work as well as it used to, they need to show a willingness to change with the times. A global first-run market seems like a goldmine to me, but I’m not a network exec.
I don’t own a television, haven’t in many years. The only way I watch TV shows is through the internet. When I see tidbits of a show on one site or another, it makes me want to watch MORE of that show, and this is why I spend so much money on the Series DVDs. If I can’t see it on the internet, I won’t know it exists, or I won’t care enough about it to buy it. I know a lot of people like me, who are on the computer far more than watching TV. They are making a huge mistake. 😐
greed greed and more greed!
I am from the UK and only get to see some of the US progs on Redlasso so I am very upset by this news…oh well I guess I’ll have to keep searching Youtube!