All the fuss over ripping Napster streams has exposed, in the words of Eric Hellweg writing in the M.I.T. Technology Review, the "soft underbelly of the subscription music business model." While very few normal consumers will attempt the learning curve required to rip off napster during its 14-day trial. But the discussion over that publicized scheme is illuminating the larger issue of legal streamrippers—stand-alone programs that record audio streaming through the computer, creating non-copy-protected files in the process. Three examples of such programs are in fairly wide circulation: Streamripper, which operates most often as a Winamp plug-in; TotalRecorder, a commercial application; and Replay Music, another commercial app. Each of these utilities operates legally, in a gray area of copyright law that leverages personal-use rights and hinges on the 1984 Betamax Ruling that sanctified VCRs as having substantial non-infringing uses.

According to Hellweg's article, no executive of a subscription service will comment on streamrippers. Reportedly, employees of these services love 'em (the rippers). Nobody seems to know whether they are legal—that will have to be established by court precedent. The upcoming Supreme Court case could impact all this mightily, especially if Betamax 1984 is modified.