Michael Robertson
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- For the former South African - American tennis touring pro see Michael Robertson (tennis).
Michael Robertson (born 1967) 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. SIPphone, Gizmo Project, and Ajax 13.
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[edit] Career
[edit] MP3.com
Robertson was the founder of the original MP3.com. Despite the amazing financial success of MP3.com (the day of the stock IPO (ticker:MPPP), the stock rose from $28 to peak at $103[1]), 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 quickly load their existing CD collection into online lockers at my.mp3.com and access their private music collections online from anywhere in the world. And also "Instant Listening" which allowed instant access of CDs purchased online from participating retailers. However, to launch the service Robertson essentially had to duplicate every music CD ever created. Although MP3.com purchased the CDs for their index and users had to supply their own copy as well, MP3.com failed to seek licenses for the music that was digitally stored on their servers.
Massive lawsuits erupted, with MP3.com claiming fair use and record labels claiming copyright infringement. Virtually every major record label sued MP3.com with MP3 settling the majority of the law suits. Universal Music, however, held out and took the issue to court. After the trial started, in the landmark case of UMG v. MP3.com, MP3.com was found to have violated copyright laws[2]. MP3.com paid $53.4 million to settle Universal Music's claim [3].
Some believed that MP3.com received unfair treatment by being lumped in with the Napster copyright case which took place during the same period. Others noted that the ruling came from the 2nd Circuit in New York, which is media company, not technology, friendly. It is speculated that a different outcome was likely if the case had been tried in the 9th Circuit instead of the 2nd Circuit. Still others saw the case as simple copyright infringement on a grand scale.
MP3.com was acquired for $385 million by Vivendi Universal during a buying spree by Vivendi Universal CEO Jean-Marie Messier. After the purchase by Vivendi, Michael Robertson cashed in with an estimated $103 million [4]. In hindsight, after Messier departed Vivendi, the new Vivendi management determined the corporate acquisitions spree to be reckless and later sold MP3.com to CNET who now manages the site. Vivendi also sold off many other companies to scale down its debt.
[edit] Linspire
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, Microsoft paid to settle the lawsuit they initiated with a $20 million payment to Lindows and certain licenses with Lindows agreeing to change their name worldwide to Linspire.
Linspire has championed an easy to use system for desktops and laptop computers and has signed on popular retailers both offline and online including Walmart.com, TigerDirect, Frys and MicroCenter. Linspire is based on Debian with a KDE interface. Linspire is most distinguished by CNR (click-n-run), a one click download and installation system which adds and updates software and is typically purchased online after the computer is purchased. In 2005, Robertson stepped down as CEO turning that title over to Linspire's long time President Kevin Carmony, but remains Chairman.
[edit] SIPphone
Robertson went on to found SIPphone which itself has seen legal action, filing suit against Vonage for false and misleading advertising including 'not disclosing the lock the company places on certain pieces of hardware'. Many view this latest suit as a publicity stunt, although Vonage later settled by altering their packaging and advertising to address the issues in the lawsuit. In addition to selling phone adapters and routers, SIPphone released free VOIP software to compete with Skype based on the SIP standard called Gizmo Project for Macintosh, Windows and Linux.
[edit] MP3tunes
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. MP3tunes also provides Oboe, a digital music back-up service.
[edit] Ajax 13
Founded in early 2006, Ajax 13 is a software development company that introduces web-based applications written using the AJAX based methodology. Ajax 13 Inc. was founded by Michael Robertson (CEO) and Hisham El-Emam (CTO), to pursue the software-as-a-service vision that is gaining more and more momentum in both the enterprise and the small business / home office marketplaces. Among the Ajax 13 products are ajaxWrite, a web-based word processor.
[edit] Education and personal life
He earned a bachelor's degree in Cognitive Science from the University of California, San Diego, where he studied under Donald Norman and interned at the nearby San Diego Supercomputer Center.
Michael lives in San Diego, California. His reported wealth has varied widely, but he has been on the Forbes 400 list once and twice on the Fortune 40 under 40, most recently in 2004.
Robertson self-identifies as a libertarian.[1]
[edit] Cited References
- ^ Q&A With Michael Robertson, Back Door, October 2002 • Vol.2 Issue 10
[edit] References
- MP3.com Goes Major Labels League by Brad King of Wired News (July 20, 2001)
