'AirPlay Recorder' lets you rip iTunes Radio songs on OS X, and other news for Feb. 18, 2014
Back in 2002, a man by the name of Jon Lech Johansen put out a program called DeCSS, which allowed users to rip encrypted DVDs for the first time. It caused a stir in the technology and film industries for obvious reasons. Now Johansen is at it again, working with Monique Farantzos at a company the two co-founded called doubleTwist. They've released software called AirPlay Recorder which lets you rip tracks directly from iTunes Radio.
AirPlay Recorder has actually been available on Android since January, but now is available on the Mac for the first time. The app is free for time-limited recordings or $9.99 for unlimited recordings. The app doesn't download the audio files associated with iTunes Radio songs, but actually records music in real time in high-quality. In other words, a three minute song takes three minutes to record.
Earlier this year co-founder Monique Farantzos spoke with out sister site Engadget about AirPlay Recorder's legality:
"Recording has been around for decades, from audio cassettes (remember mix tapes?) to TuneIn radio's recording feature. Given that Apple built their iPod empire on letting millions of people rip CDs based on fair use, we don't see how they could object to this app."
As AirPlay Record for Mac exists outside of the Mac App Store, it seems there is nothing Apple nor the music providers can do to stop the distribution of the app without a court order.
In other news:
Tim Cook has tweeted a picture from the opening of the first Apple Store in Brazil.
Apple has seeded the seventh build of OS X Mavericks 10.9.2 to developers.
