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