Today was a wonderful day for industrious IT entrepeneur Michael Robertson. Robertson, whose track record includes MP3.com, Linspire (previously known as Lindows) and MP3tunes.com, found himself facing a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by record company EMI and a bunch of assorted record labels.

EMI & co. claimed Robertson, CEO of MP3tunes.com, was part of the axis of evil for offering and heading an online service which allows users to save digitalised copies of their record collection in online lockers. The music libraries stored on a server were accessable from any end-user gadget which could cope - consoles, PCs and whatnot.

Naturally, in the eyes of any music company that's just plain evil, as they'd rather forbid people making backup copies, storing them on the net ready to be accessed from anywhere in the world and not having to shell out to buy MP3s of an album one already owns. After all, you couldn't back up your vinyl LPs back in the 70s, could you - so why shouldn't the rules of the analogue era apply to the digital domain of the information society?

Nonetheless, New York District Judge sine nobilitate William H. Pauley III ruled that EMI and its lackeys were a bunch of weasels for suing the CEO of MP3tunes.com, which is why he dismissed the case against Robertson. The case against MP3tunes.com however will proceed. Michael Robertson has said he is happy he won't face being sued out of his pants by a company staffed by clueless people who haven't done their homework and can keep his minivan. He added he was intentionally targeted by EMI, as MP3tunes.com is small prey compared to big corporations offering similar online music storage services such as AOL, Microsoft and BT.

"Suing CEOs personally is a nasty tactic media companies are engaging in to intimidate individuals, forcing them to either enter into a settlement or face the possibility of losing their homes, cars, and all their personal belongings," claimed, Michael Robertson. "I chose to fight instead of run, because I believe consumers should be able to listen to their music everywhere. We look forward to explaining to the court what we do, and how we do it in a responsible and legal manner." X