The founder of MP3.com, one of the Internet's first online music sites, opened on Wednesday an online store that sells songs and albums without technology to protect against illegal copying.

MP3tunes from Michael Robertson sells songs in MP3 format without any digital rights management technology, which means the music can be copied without restrictions. The music can be played on any portable player supporting the standard, including Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod, Dell Inc.'s Digital Jukebox and the Creative Technology Ltd.'s Nomad.

All music sold on the site has been legally licensed from independent artists and small record labels.

The online music store contains more than 300,000 songs that are sold for 88 cents a piece. Albums are available for $8.88. Purchased songs are downloaded to a buyer's computer, and are also stored in a "music locker" maintained by MP3tunes. The stored music, which is accessible from any browser, protects buyers in cases where files are destroyed. Music can be downloaded anytime without repurchasing.

More than 22,000 artists have given Robertson, who is financing the business himself, the right to sell their music. None of the major record labels have signed deals with Robertson, but they do distribute music on sites with proprietary digital-rights protection, such as Apple's iTunes and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Music Store. Microsoft also licenses its DRM technology.

In a recent interview, Robertson said consumers are getting a raw deal from online music services that use copyright-protection software, because the music doesn't support unlimited copying and can't be played on any digital music player.

"Our message to consumers is, if you pay for music, you should be able to copy it to any device that you want," Robertson said. "There's a paradox today that if you steal your (MP3) music from file-sharing sites, then you can use it anyway you want. But if you pay for the music, then you get it with all kinds of restrictions and limitations.

"That has to turn around to really energize consumers."

At its height, Robertson's MP3.com portal was the No. 1 music site on the web with 3 million hits a month. In 2000, however, a federal court ruled that a portion of the service violated copyright law by allowing songs from commercial CDs to be downloaded.

Robertson sold MP3.com to Vivendi Univeral, which sold it in 2003 to C/Net.