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Linspire Chief Defies DRM Wave With New Music Service

Linspire Chief Defies DRM Wave With New Music Service

Challenging the trend toward digital rights management, former MP3.com chief and Linspire CEO Michael Robertson will re-enter the music world next week with MP3tunes, a service that promises music without DRM restrictions.

The announcement will be made next week at Linspire’s Desktop Summit, where a new VOIP (voice-over-IP) company, SwitchVox, also will be launched. Robertson’s other venture, SIPphone, will introduce a $39 device designed to facilitate Internet calling, Robertson said.

“I think [DRM] is a problem; I’ve made no bones about it,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “I’m not a fan of DRM. I think it penalizes paying customers. If you can get music from file-sharing networks and pay nothing, and then get it from the record guys with a pair of handcuffs attached…I think it’s awful.”

This will be fraught with lawsuits, however, I hope this succeeds. -KF

Source: eWeek

Comments

  1. Garg
    Garg
    "I'm not a fan of DRM. I think it penalizes paying customers"

    DAMN STRAIGHT!

    I'll be on the new service if they can get enough music.
  2. Thrax
    Thrax Michael Robertson totally ****ed mp3.com, I used to get a bunch of great trance music from them, but then they went down for restructuring and came back but a pale shade of their former selves... But that's ok! He's going to rock out against the RIAA, and that's a good god damn apology to me.

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