The Death of Redlasso Devastates Bloggers
 Saturday, July 26th, 2008  by Connie T.

At first we felt like Redlasso - the video clipping service that spans cable channels across America - was too good to be true. But as the months went by, we became accustomed to it, addicted even, and used it to clip everything for you from Ron Paul on C-Span to the ladies on ABC's The View, to Fox News blunders and the occasional Tyra Banks clip.

For the daytime TV shows we don't have time to watch all the way through, to the nighttime newscasts with too many commercials, the ease of moving that little slider through the day and searching an entire channel, time slot, or day (from locally to nationally) was a gold mine for bloggers like us.

We say was, because Redlasso is now down. Gone, finished, kaput, as of Friday...thanks to NBC and Fox News, who both filed copyright infringement lawsuits against the video sharing beta site. As if we needed another reason to be fed up with FOX or pissed off at the peacock.

"We are very disappointed in the actions of select networks," said Redlasso Chief Executive Ken Hayward in a statement. "We believe we have always acted within the law and have been respectful of the networks' rights. 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...Clip usage by bloggers is an exercise of First Amendment rights to provide social commentary on newsworthy events."

Redlasso already had a time limit of under 10 minutes for clippers, so as not to infringe on the profits of any particular network or show. It remains to be seen whether or not the suspension will be temporary or permanent. In a meantime we are, in a word, devastated.

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