Michael Robertson
Encyclopedia
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
of MP3.com
MP3.com
MP3.com is a web site operated by CNET Networks providing information about digital music and artists, songs, services, community, and technologies. It is probably better known for its original incarnation, as a legal, free music-sharing service, popular with independent musicians for promoting...
, which quickly became one of the most popular Internet music sites. In the years following his departure from MP3.com, Robertson launched several small start-up companies, including Linspire
Linspire
Linspire, previously known as LindowsOS, was a commercial operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux and later Ubuntu. Linspire was published by Linspire, Inc. and focused on ease-of-use, targeting home PC users...
, SIPphone, MP3tunes, and Ajax 13. He recently founded the DAR.fm, a website for recording audio from the radio.
MP3.com
Robertson was the founder of the original MP3.com. Despite the early success of MP3.com on Wall StreetWall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
(the day of the stock IPO (ticker:MPPP), the stock rose from $28 to peak at $103), 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 violated copyright laws by failing to acquire licenses for the music that was internally duplicated by digitally storing the material 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 for tens of millions of dollars. Universal Music, however, held out and took the issue to court. After the trial started, in the landmark case of UMG v. MP3.com
UMG v. MP3.com
UMG Recordings, Inc. v. MP3.com, Inc., 92 F. Supp. 2d 349 was a landmark case before Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York concerning the Internet...
, MP3.com was found to have violated copyright laws. MP3.com paid $53.4 million to settle Universal Music's claim. This legal outcome triggered a class action complaint charging MP3.com and certain of its officers, including Robertson, and directors with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The complaint was boilerplate class action language but revolved entirely around the copyright lawsuit and subsequent stock price decline.
The action was ultimately resolved under the terms of an agreement whereby the defendants, while continuing to deny all liability, paid into an escrow account $35,000,000 and agreed to issue 2.5 million shares of MP3.com common stock which MP3.com valued at the time at $5,391,000, in exchange for complete dismissals and releases of all claims with prejudice. In addition, under the Stipulations, MP3.com agreed to institute certain corporate governance enhancements.
Robertson believed that MP3.com received unfair treatment by being lumped in with the Napster copyright case which took place during the same period. Robertson further speculated that a different outcome was likely if the case had been tried in a court within the 9th Circuit (a federal appellate court that serves the West Coast) instead of a court within the 2nd Circuit (a federal appellate court that serves portions of the East Coast). Others, however, saw the case as simple copyright infringement on a grand, even record-breaking scale. The first line of the Court's opinion reads: "The complex marvels of cyberspatial communication may create difficult legal issues; but not in this case. Defendant's infringement of plaintiff's copyrights is clear," rendering such speculations moot.
MP3.com was acquired for $385 million by Vivendi Universal
Vivendi
Vivendi SA is a French international media conglomerate with activities in music, television and film, publishing, telecommunications, the Internet, and video games. It is headquartered in Paris.- History :...
during a buying spree by Vivendi's CEO Jean-Marie Messier
Jean-Marie Messier
Jean-Marie Messier is a French businessman who was Chairman and Chief Executive of the multinational media conglomerate Vivendi SA until 2002...
. After the purchase by Vivendi, Michael Robertson cashed in with an estimated $103 million. 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 which now manages the site. Messier's buying spree accumulated billions of dollars in debt for his company and resulted in company shares falling to 20% of their previous value. Vivendi was compelled to sell off many other companies to scale down its debt.
Linspire
After leaving MP3.com, Robertson started an OS technology company, Lindows. Since Lindows created a LinuxLinux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
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 championed an easy-to-use system for desktops and laptop computers and signed on popular retailers, both offline and online, including Walmart.com, TigerDirect, Frys and MicroCenter. Linspire was based on Debian
Debian
Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
(and later Ubuntu
Ubuntu (operating system)
Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu...
) with a KDE
KDE
KDE is an international free software community producing an integrated set of cross-platform applications designed to run on Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, Solaris and Mac OS X systems...
interface. Linspire was most distinguished by CNR, a one-click software download and installation system which also provided updates.
In 2008, Robertson attempted to sue Linspire's bank, Comerica
Comerica
Comerica Incorporated is a financial services company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, USA. It has retail banking operations in Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Texas; and select business operations in several other U.S...
, in an attempt to get Comerica to refund severance payments which had been made to laid-off Linspire employees. Robertson alleged the severance payments were actually funds which had been embezzled by the laid-off employees. The San Diego Police Department investigated and quickly came to the conclusion that this was a simple dispute between Robertson and Linspire's CEO at the time, Kevin Carmony, and no embezzlement or other crime had been committed. Robertson lost the lawsuit without it getting past summary judgment.
In an effort to defend the names of the former employees Robertson had unsuccessfully tried to have arrested for embezzlement, former-CEO Kevin Carmony launched a website critical of Robertson called Freespire.com in February 2008. The Freespire.com site states that it is "dedicated to shedding light on the REAL Michael Robertson," and discloses information and facts about Robertson. In an attempt to have the Freespire.com site taken down, Robertson had Linspire (renamed as Digital Cornerstone) file a lawsuit against Carmony, claiming the site violated trademark law. In 2010, Robertson lost the lawsuit with the court saying the site did not infringe on any trademarks and was protected as free speech. Judge Judith F. Hayes stated in her ruling, "...the Court finds the general purpose of the website to be a free speech forum wherein Defendant criticized the management of Plaintiff."
SIPphone
In 2003 Robertson founded SIPphone, which itself has seen legal action, filing suit against VonageVonage
Vonage is a publicly held commercial voice over IP network and SIP company that provides telephone service via a broadband connection. The company's name is a play on their motto "Voice-Over-Net-AGE"....
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 develops free VOIP software to compete with Skype
Skype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
based on the SIP standard called Gizmo5
Gizmo5
Gizmo5 was a Voice over Internet Protocol communications network and a proprietary freeware soft phone for that network. On November 12, 2009, Google announced that it had acquired Gizmo5...
, which is available on a variety of platforms. On November 12, 2009, Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
announced that it had acquired the company.
MP3tunes
In February 2005, Robertson launched MP3tunes.com, which sells downloadable music. Robertson boasts that, unlike Apple ComputerApple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
's iTunes Music Store and most other competitors, MP3tunes does not use digital rights management
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
technology to limit the use of songs its customers purchase. MP3tunes also provides Oboe, a digital music back-up service.
Like MP3.com, Robertson's first online music company, MP3tunes.com finds itself struggling against a significant copyright infringement lawsuit issued by a major recording label, EMI. The resulting decision in Capitol Records, Inc. v. MP3Tunes, LLC
Capitol Records, Inc. v. MP3Tunes, LLC
Capitol Records, Inc. v. MP3tunes, LLC is a 2011 case from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York concerning copyright infringement and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act...
was viewed as a victory for online storage and cloud music services.
Ajax 13
Founded in early 2006 by Michael Robertson (CEO) and Hisham El-Emam (CTO), Ajax 13 Inc. is a software development company that provides web-based applications written using XULXUL
In computer programming, XUL , the XML User Interface Language, is an XML user interface markup language developed by the Mozilla project. XUL operates in Mozilla cross-platform applications such as Firefox...
. It was started to pursue the software-as-a-service
Software as a Service
Software as a service , sometimes referred to as "on-demand software," is a software delivery model in which software and its associated data are hosted centrally and are typically accessed by users using a thin client, normally using a web browser over the Internet.SaaS has become a common...
vision that is gaining momentum in both the enterprise and small business / home office marketplaces. Among the Ajax 13 products is ajaxWrite, a web-based word processor
Word processor
A word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....
.
Education and personal life
He earned a bachelor's degreeBachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in Cognitive Science
Cognitive science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on how information is processed , represented, and transformed in behaviour, nervous system or machine...
from the University of California, San Diego
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...
, where he studied under Donald Norman
Donald Norman
Donald Arthur Norman is an academic in the field of cognitive science, design and usability engineering and a co-founder and consultant with the Nielsen Norman Group. He is the author of the book The Design of Everyday Things....
and interned at the nearby San Diego Supercomputer Center
San Diego Supercomputer Center
The San Diego Supercomputer Center is an organized research unit of the University of California, San Diego . Physically, SDSC is located on the east end of Eleanor Roosevelt College on the campus of UCSD....
.
Robertson lives in San Diego, California. His reported wealth has varied widely, but he has been on the Forbes 400
Forbes 400
The Forbes 400 or 400 Richest Americans is a list published by Forbes Magazine magazine of the wealthiest 400 Americans, ranked by net worth. The list is published annually in September, and 2010 marks the 29th issue. The 400 was started by Malcom Forbes in 1982 and treats those in the list like...
list once and twice on the Fortune 40 under 40
40 under 40 (Fortune Magazine)
Fortune Magazine's 40 under 40 List details the young stars in business across the globe.Mark Zuckerberg topped the 2011 list. Facebook now has over 800 million users.-External links:***...
, most recently in 2004. In 1999, he was named to the MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
Technology Review
Technology Review
Technology Review is a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as "The Technology Review", and was re-launched without the "The" in its name on April 23, 1998 under then publisher R. Bruce Journey...
TR100
TR35
The TR35 is an annual list published by MIT Technology Review magazine, naming the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35.Some of the most famous winners of the award include Larry Page and Sergey Brin , Linus Torvalds , Jerry Yang , Jonathan Ive , Mark Zuckerberg...
as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.
In April 2008, Robertson pleaded with the MP3tunes user group to help fund the legal defense regarding the EMI lawsuit.
Robertson self-identifies as a libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
.
Michael Robertson is founder of the Robertson Education Empowerment Foundation
Robertson Education Empowerment Foundation
Robertson Education Empowerment Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting new and innovative programs of investment in education....
(REEF).