Legally? No.
The RealAudio format is patented and proprietary. Anyone who wrote a program that translated RealAudio format into asome other format, without Real's permission, would be committing a Federal offense that could land him in jail for fifteen years.
Most of the major proprietary audio formats, like RealAudio and Windows Media Audio, are protected by poatents, and the companies who own the patents will do everything they can (including putting people in prison) to make sure that nobody makes it possible to translate one format into another.
Why?
Money, We're talking billions and billions of dollars here.
We are used to thinking of streaming audio as "free." You can get Windows Media Player free, you can get Real Player free.
But the software that *makes* these streaming broadcasts is *not* free. In fact, it can be very, very expensive; for example, if you want to be able to send out multiple real-time live video and audio streams for Real Player, the software will cost you about $50,000.
Now, let's say it was easy to translate one format into another.
A Webmaster would justpick whatever server software was cheapest. Nobody would give Real $50,000 for their software; instead, Webmasters would just pick cheaper software made by somebody else, and give out converter programs to anyone who wanted to listen with Real Player.
Microsoft and Real are currently battling for control fo online music distribution and licensing. Whichever format wins out is going to be worth ten to twenty billion dollars over the next few years. The loser will probably get nothing. So, making sure there is no easy, free way to convert between formats is a *very* big deal.
