He started the original MP3.com in mid-1997, when the digital music phenomenon was just beginning to hit the cultural radar. The company was ultimately sued by the major labels and music publishers for copyright infringement, and was sold to Universal Music Group after striking settlement deals that neared US$200 million. CNET Networks, the publisher of ZDNet Australia, now owns the MP3.com domain name and uses it for an unrelated business.
Robertson's latest target is Apple Computer, whose iPod music player and iTunes software currently dominate the digital music world nearly as successfully as Microsoft controls the PC operating system and office software markets. In midsummer, he quietly launched a site called BadFruit, which beat Apple CEO Steve Jobs to putting links to podcasts into iTunes with a piece of software called BadApple.
This may not be his top priority. After all, he's also running Linspire, which provides a Linux-based operating system, and the Gizmo Project, a Skype competitor that offers free Net calling.
But as history has shown, it's worth watching what Robertson is doing, whatever it is. There's usually something about to happen.
Q: The BadApple project is something you're managing, right?
Robertson: Yes.
What's the idea behind the project?
Robertson: Well, I think there is a battle going on right now between, you know, proprietary formats and open standards. On one side of the war, you've got big corporations like Microsoft and Apple coming out with their FairPlay or some other highly misleading description of their technology, trying to battle for a proprietary world. DRM (digital rights management) of course is the big cornerstone of that. I believe it's up to technologists and people like myself to pull the world in the other direction, which is open standards.
I asked Steve Jobs to put FairPlay onto Linux and he said "no". I mean, flat-out no. That's not a world I want. I want a world where people can choose any hardware device they want, any operating system, and not have to re-buy their music every time they get a new device. I think open standards are the key to that. What we were trying to do with BadApple is pull the world more towards an open direction.
You initially provided podcasting support for iTunes, and the software now allows you to sync music players that are not iPods with iTunes. Is BadApple an umbrella for various different things, or is what we see now the end goal?
Robertson: No, it's not the end goal at all. I mean, I think it's just an example. Why shouldn't you be able to use any player, and shop at any store, and get your content in any format? Those are features, those are capabilities that consumers should have.
This is not just a tiny hack that we threw together. The goal here is to open the world and to force these big guys to interoperate, which they don't want to do.
Are you looking at other software programs such as Windows Media Player as well, then? Or are you mostly focused specifically on Apple at this point?
Robertson: Well, you know, the BadApple plug-in is focused on the iTunes universe because that's the leader today. But I think if you broaden your perspective and you look at what Microsoft is trying to do with their "Plays for sure" campaign, it's no different. The only difference is they haven't had as much success as Apple.
But Microsoft is still trying to lock in every hardware device into only their system, and that's not right. That's not the way the world should work.
Have you had any contact with Apple over this, or have they contacted you?
Robertson: No, no contact.
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