How did the KaZaA Media Desktop software evolve? It began with a talented bunch of people in Holland and Estonia who had a very clever idea. My company, Sharman, bought the software and the brand at the beginning of 2002 and our vision was to carry on developing peer-to-peer. Critical for us was moving the whole file-sharing phenomenon that began with Napster, into a powerful and legitimate distribution model that's great for users and artists.
I know in my blood how compelling and logical P2P is as a direction for technology - it's the internet's destiny.
How does it feel to have the most downloaded software? It's certainly an honour and we take it very seriously. There are a lot of pressures being as big as we are, so we want to make sure we keep our users safe, which is why we pioneered the first P2P anti-virus technology and we've embedded the privacy and family filters in the software.
Can you clarify the debate about whether KaZaA contains spyware? It's almost an urban myth now! Really we have no spyware in the KMD - one of our struggles is that there's a whole industry out there that makes its business from mythologising spyware and creating software to remove it. If you were a fly on the wall in the Sharman office you would hear passionate arguments about users' privacy, and we have rigorous privacy testing procedures for any software that goes into KaZaA.
Do you see games consoles becoming P2P-equipped in the future? I hope so. As our licensed content becomes more popular, then it seems logical that you should be able to use your games console to download stuff in your living room.
How do you see file-sharing evolving? It'll definitely become more democratised in terms of how users interact, so we may see things like the collision of the blogging phenomenon with file-sharing, so users are sharing a bit of their personality as well as the files on their system.
So you're a blogging devotee? I'm a fanatic! I don't have a blog myself but I sometimes emerge from a trance to realise I've been reading other people's blogs for three hours! I think it's a tremendously interesting phenomenon.
Favourite blogs/sites? boingboing.net/ is a fantastic blog for the way it skips between being incredibly intelligent and provocative to being quirky. One website I've been enjoying greatly is www.davidbowie.com/splash/splashV3.html. It fascinates me because somehow he managed to get me to part with $69 to join!
iTunes and similar Windows services? It's good to see and good luck to them. I think the file-sharing debate is really important but certainly the current vilification is disappointing to us. It's especially a shame when Sharman in particular is working on positive solutions - we're here to make a positive change, not to just cause trouble!
· Visit: www.kazaa.com
