Angus Kidman09 January 2007, 3:05 PM
Broadclips's scheduling tool to automatically record radio broadcasts and download them to your iPod. Truly cool idea or a potential legal minefield? Do you even care?
Many bloggers make great play of the fact that recording TV and radio broadcasts for personal use has long been legal in the United States (and has also become legal in Australia, thanks to the effective harmonisation of copyright laws under the free trade agreement).
Software startup Broadclip has taken that enthusiasm a step further, developing software that will automatically record your favourite songs and radio channels and copy them to your iPod or other media player.
Broadclip, founded by attorney and engineer Sam Abadir, is due to release its audio MediaCatcher software on January 15 as a free download.
The premise is fairly simple: you enter the names of artists you already like into its search engine, and Broadclip searches its existing database of online radio stations to find channels which play those artists regularly.
On the premise that most Net broadcasters follow a narrowcasting format and that you'll also like other material on the same stations, it then records the broadcasts from that station and makes them available via iTunes.
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As well as the audio version, there's a video equivalent which has been available since November, and which the company rather shamelessly describes as "like Tivo for iPods".
Unlike the audio release, which is free (the company hopes to eventually use an ad-supported model), the video software sells for a one-time fee of $39. It also only supports US TV listings, which makes it next to useless for anyone outside the States (we could whinge here about Australia's lack of a free electronic program guide, but you've heard it all before).
Although the rationale for the service is very much based on US law, the company has no plans to restrict access to the software. "If anything, the legal issues are even less of a worry in other markets," a Broadclip spokesperson told APC.
Broadclip MediaCatcher supports Windows XP and the company is promising Macintosh and Linux support "soon".