>> There was some products like 'Streambox VCR!' to do this 
job
>> (download .rm files from a rtsp server), but they
>> disappeared due to IP issues. Of course, they are sued by
>> RealMedia.
>
>Hahaha! And now real media is wondering why their products 
>are not used anymore by anyone. Proprietary, lack of 
>documentation and support, and IP issues.
>Burn to hell, real media ..

You forgot to mention that it sucks anyway.

But the real point behind such proprietary streaming media 
protocals is to make it (nearly) impossible to record 
(download) the content for offline viewing. The customers 
of such companies like RealNetworks are keen on such 
things. It's obvious that the custoemrs are not the end 
users but the content providers. If some software appears 
which which circumvents this DRM protection, the author 
will get sued to hell (and as the DMCA is also current law 
in Europe, this would also apply to a french author) and 
the protocol can also be easily changed to prevent the 
software from working.

- Klaus