Anti-trust looms over major labels legal blitz

"If you look at the lawsuits that are pending, they seem to be doing a very good job of divvying up the litigation. Warner is suing some, EMI are suing others - and I find that very curious. There's not one where they're suing the same company!"

Indeed not. Universal Music is going after Grouper, Warner Music is taking on Seeqpod, and EMI has sued MP3Tunes.

It's odd, since the Big Four are acutely sensitive to anti-trust allegations - to the extent that they can't co-ordinate anything positive.

So was he mulling a formal anti-trust complaint?

"I have never really thought about that," he told us. "I'm not a government intervention kind of guy. I'd rather let the marketplace settle it out."

We pointed out Scott McNealy is another instinctive libertarian - who nevertheless believed in anti-trust action. But he wouldn't be drawn.

The new Microsoft of Music

Much of the litigation by the big record labels against internet companies is being settled with the majors taking an equity stake. Robertson noted how the new MySpace music operation was jointly-owned by the labels and News Corp.

"News Corp is creating another entity that's a MS Music Inc. to the labels. But if you're small you don't have that option. We don't have a Microsoft sugar daddy to lean, to bring 100 million customers to the door, or big name branding."

Robertson was also sour on the prospect of major labels and network operators striking one-off deals - covenants not to sue - then walking away.

"If the companies get payment up front there's no long-term alignment of interests - but that's not what's happening. There's equity and it guarantees payment to the label, so they don't need to care."

He warned that if the case was lost, record companies would go after other services next.

"How many MP3 attachments are on GMail's servers now? I'll go out on a limb and say they have an equal number of MP3s on their servers right now. So... our case is an important one." ®