COPYCENSE

“Michael Robertson’s reputation rests on the string of companies he’s started, from MP3.com to Linspire.

“But that reputation stems at least as much from his habit of thumbing his nose at those in power. Robertson’s latest target is Apple Computer, whose iPod music player and iTunes software currently dominate the digital music world. In midsummer, he quietly launched a site called BadFruit, which beat Apple to putting links to podcasts into iTunes with a piece of software called BadApple.

“The latest version of the BadApple allows people to use Apple’s iTunes software to sync their music collections with non-Apple MP3 players. Robertson says he’s pursuing the project–an offshoot of his MP3Tunes music store, which sells independent music in MP3 format without copy protection–in order to encourage the development of interoperability between different music platforms.

John Borland. Getting Bad With Apple. News.com. Sept. 14, 2005.

See also:

Matt Hines. MP3tunes.com Shuns Digital Rights Management. News.com. Feb. 9, 2005.

John Borland. MP3.com Founder Returns to Music Biz. News.com. Feb. 2, 2005.