Grabbing, Ripping, and Saving Streams

The video recording products, on the other hand, are "direct to source" recorders. They actually go to the server and grab the file from the server, or in some cases grab the stream just as it is coming from the server, says Mayes, who doesn't want to give away trade secrets by providing more detail about how exactly his software does this.

Mayes says most of the audio recording tools currently on the market are sound card recorders. In contrast, a new, just-released Applian audio tool called Replay AV works like the company's video tools by going directly to the sources. He thinks this will give the product a leg up over the competition.

Applian does not offer a product that captures QuickTime streams. This is because Apple has very strict rules about how people can access and use or manipulate files from its servers, according to Mayes, making it a legal problem rather than a technical one. Mayes says his company doesn't want to break any laws. RealNetworks also has strict rules about accessing the files on its Helix servers, says Mayes, but his programmers have found a way to "circumvent" the restrictions, a "workaround" way of grabbing the streams without violating the rules.

Mayes says that if people really wanted to grab a QuickTime stream, however, they might be able to do that with Applian's Screencast, which is a screen capture tool that grabs whatever is displayed on the screen and turns it into a streaming file. But they'd suffer some quality loss, and Mayes doesn't advocate that procedure, he quickly adds.

The Legal Question
Of course all this recording and ripping of other people's content without their permission raises the question: is this illegal or unethical? If a Webcaster or streamer wanted his content to be freely recorded, wouldn't he make it available for download or as a progressive download? Doesn't the fact that a particular piece of content is streamed imply that the owner doesn't want the user to save it?

Well, if a content provider doesn't want his stuff grabbed, then he should use DRM to protect it, says Mayes. "If it's available to play, it's available to record," he says. As long as you're recording digital media for your own personal use, no laws are violated. "This falls in the same category as CD ripping programs like iTunes, and MusicMatch, or using a VCR or tape recorder, or like TiVo," he says. "None of our programs will record DRM protected content," he adds.

"We create tools that allow people to keep what they want in their own terms," Mayes says, explaining that the company's mission is to "give consumers tools to make their digital media experiences easier and better. We want our tools to be so simple that an 80 year old grandmother can access her favorite shows with a few mouse clicks."

Applian has also been trying to lure customers by providing extra services along with their products, such as its popular Replay Media Guide, a free service that aggregates sources of digital media. At www.replaymediaguide.com, you'll find URLs to over 2100 online radio stations and over 500 Internet TV stations, and over 1100 radio shows. Sensing that podcasting is a growing trend, Applian has added over 13,000 podcasts to the Media Guide. And to give its new Replay AV product extra value, Applian is bundling in a free podcatcher.

Of course, Applian isn't the only supplier of stream recording software. Other commercial video stream recording packages include Net Transport, HiDownload, Offline Explorer Pro, StreamBox VCR Suite, and CoSoft StreamDown. Internet radio and music recording/ripping tools are too numerous to list. All these products are cheap and some are even free.