Secondly – Redbox’s content is recycled material anyhow. They didn’t designate the rating or design the movie box picture. I am sure the developers of said app could get the info elsewhere (they already do for yahoo ratings).

Third – If their gripe is about the “penetration” of the contents of individual kiosks, they should have thought about that before using an open standard such as Web Services.

In the end – this is a knee-jerk reaction, and I hope the executives at redbox have the sense to make ammends.

I would equate the Inside Redbox app to something like the iFlix app for managing your Netflix queue. Definetely not created by Netflix, definitely cool for the fans though and a useful way to make Netflix more valuable to their customers. Netflix doesn’t complain because they understand that they can’t do everything and if a fan wants to experience Netflix different then that, it is apparently fine by them.

I would also like to clarify that when I say that Redbox has turned on their fans, I’m not talking about customers who rent a DVD once a month. I’m talking specifically about Inside Redbox and other members of the Redbox community who’ve devoted a tremendous amount of time, energy, money and passion towards furthering the success of Redbox. If you’re one of the people who bought the app, you’re more or less screwed now because of Redbox’s actions.

Inside Redbox was one of (if not THE) first blogs to specifically cover all Redbox news. Over the last five years, they’ve scoured the net for obscure articles, details and information that would be of interest to Redbox’s small, but dedicated (and growing) customer base. By forcing Inside Redbox to remove the app, instead of negotiating a mutually acceptable solution, Redbox is essentially saying we don’t care that IR loved their service so much to devote a (un)healthy amount of their life to sharing info about them and writing code for programs like they, they only care that it’s unauthorized, so Redbox devotees can go kick rocks.

Redbox may have the right to object to the app, but that doesn’t make it the right thing to do.

They could of handled this diplomatically, but instead have chosen to take the position that they’re too bog now to talk with bloggers and fans who’ve spent so much of their time and energy promoting the company for them. Even if they still killed the app, it would have been better for them to at least engage in a conversation, instead of using intimidation to force the app to be removed.

What I really liked about your comment though, was that you hit the nail right on the head when you wrote “It’s a decision to maintain control over the way their content is used”

When you look at the mashup culture that we live in, there are many content owners who’ve objected to how their customers are remixing their creations into new works of art, but the end result has only reinforced the original content and added value to the content owners.

This is a case where long time fans took a big risk developing something that Redbox failed to create. Instead of celebrating this, they’re attacking it? That doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t understand how Redbox is helped by this. Even if they wanted to release an official app, what is the harm in giving consumers more options for how to interact with their product? Redbox may want to assert control, but we live in a world now where customers are increasingly taking control over their content and experience. If Redbox is struggling to adapt to this culture shift with a DVD model, how will they fair once they move to the internet?

You may not feel like they’ve turned on you, but when they take hostile action against long time devoted members of their community, I’m going to call them out on it.

Instead of fighting with their customers to preserve their legacy way of doing business (free codes for promotion), they should be working with them to provide an even better solution for consumers. By tweaking how they do their codes, they could essentially have their cake and eat it to, but instead they’ve chosen to attack some of their longest and most dedicated fans by taking away a small, but loved program. In my mind, killing the app over how someone is repackage Redbox’s own marketing is a bit like the record companies refusing to sell songs on iTunes because they’re available on the Pirate Bay. It just doesn’t make any sense and instead of providing a legitimate way to reach their customers, they’re forcing them to use a telephone browser to read a web page that was designed to be seen on a monitor.