Michael Robertson
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Michael Robertson is the founder and former CEO of MP3.com. He started Lindows.com, Inc., producer of Linspire (originally Lindows), in October 2001 in San Diego, California, USA. In 2005, Robertson founded MP3tunes.
He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of California, San Diego, where he studied under Donald Norman and interned at the nearby San Diego Supercomputer Center.
Michael Robertson (http://michaelrobertson.com) was the founder of the original MP3.com. Despite the amazing financial success of MP3.com (as it reached a top-end valuation of 2.2 billion dollars), Robertson quickly led his company into a firestorm of lawsuits generated by the major record labels and music publishing concerns. The litigation sprang from Robertson's "Beam-it" program, a functionality that allowed people to access their private music collections online from anywhere in the world. However, to launch the service Robertson essentially had to duplicate every music CD ever created. Since MP3.com failed to seek permission from the copyright owners of the music that was duplicated, massive lawsuits erupted, resulting in the landmark case of UMG v. MP3.com.
MP3.com narrowly avoided bankruptcy by merging with Vivendi Universal during a time that the latter company was engaging in a corporate aquistions spree that many judged to be reckless. After leaving MP3.com, Robertson founded a second technology company, Lindows. Since Lindows created a Linux based operating system designed to compete with Microsoft's Windows operating system, Microsoft filed trademark related lawsuits in the United States and abroad. Given that the trademarked "Windows" name was in some jeopardy, the suits were settled, but with Lindows agreeing to alter their name to Linspire.
Michael went on to found SIPphone which itself has seen legal action, filing suit against Vonage for 'not disclosing the lock the company places on certain pieces of hardware'. Many view this latest suit as a publicity stunt.
In February 2005, Robertson launched his newest company, MP3tunes, which sells downloadable music. Robertson boasts that, unlike Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store and other competitors, MP3tunes does not use digital rights management technology to limit the use of songs its customers purchase.
External links
- Michael Robertson blog and home page (http://michaelrobertson.com)
- Linspire.com Executive Profile: Michael Robertson and others (http://www.linspire.com/lindows_about_profiles.php)