If it's digital and it's being transferred illegally across the net, you can bet that Allan Morris will get the blame. He's executive vice-president of Australian software company Sharman Networks, owner of KaZaA - the world's leading file sharing service, and scourge of the record industry.
Both Sharman and KaZaA's users have been getting battered by litigation by the US record industry and now, in return, Sharman is pursuing a counter claim alleging anti-competitive behaviour and unfair business practices.
Against this backdrop you'd imagine that a keynote address to the music industry - at last week's MusicWorks conference in Glasgow - would generate a sour note. But it's not as it seems, according to Morris. They're really all on talking terms.
"We've talked and we continue to talk regularly to the senior executives of the record labels and they've always been very enthusiastic," he insists. "The attorneys and others that drive the litigation are the problem.
"Our counter claim is rather muted and that was deliberately the case. We don't seek a fight but we aren't going to stand by and get beaten-up".
Morris, who runs Sharman's US and European operations, is well aware that KaZaA is being used to illegally distribute copyrighted material. But he claims that Sharman's purchase of KaZaA last year was intended precisely to reverse that trend. "We acquired the application in order to be the most effective distributor of licenced content. What we're offering the record companies is the most powerful way of monetising file sharing."
Morris is referring to Sharman's partnership with Altnet, whose TopSearch technology offers users an alternative to pirated files. Search results in KaZaA prioritise Gold Icon files, which represent high quality files provided by professional content creators such as record companies. Most of these files are digitally rights managed (DRM) and typically offer users a range of choices, from limited free trials to various purchasing options.
Already KaZaA is the number one provider of Microsoft DRM technology, mainly through downloads of computer games and music by emerging artists. What's missing is licensed content from the major record companies.
"It's very interesting to hear all of the emphasis being on the licensed files," says Andrew Yeates, director general of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) - the record industry's trade body in the UK. "But let's be realistic. We all know that these services have far more unlicensed files being transferred than licensed ones at the moment, and that's the issue for us."
Many believe the record industry has only itself to blame for this, having been too slow to come up with a compelling and legal alternative to Napster. With a generation now accustomed to acquiring music for free, the genie may be out of the bottle for good. But Morris is more optimistic.
"The evidence we've seen with independent artists on KaZaA is that when people have the chance to acquire a guaranteed quality, virus protected, endorsed song for a relatively small price, then sufficient people in large numbers will do that."
It's an argument proven by the success of Apple's iTunes Music Store which, unlike KaZaA, has the support of the majors. Despite this, Morris isn't about to ditch KaZaA's peer- to-peer (P2P) technology, which he says is the antithesis of iTunes' centralised, tightly controlled model.
"iTunes is a cool site, but yesterday's technology," says Morris. "P2P networks are much more bandwidth efficient than website delivery and they have a viral quality which fosters the creation of online communities.
Some of these communities have been in the spotlight this week after the Guardian reported on Scotland Yard claims that the scale of P2P traffic in illegal images of children now dwarfs almost any other paedophile network they have encountered.
Morris is surprised by this, pointing to recent contrary evidence from the US Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. They discovered that the availability of illegal pornographic material through websites and chat rooms far exceeds what's available on P2P.
"With responsible P2P operations such as KaZaA, no user is truly anonymous from legitimate law enforcement agencies. So someone has got to be really dumb to distribute paedophile material on KaZaA," claims Morris.
"KaZaA has zero tolerance for child pornography. We readily cooperate with law-enforcement agencies worldwide and are ready to support the British authorities in reducing the problem even further, if they contact us."
"As far as music is concerned, if you look at the way in which it is recommended, people already share files by instant messaging and email, saying 'hey, check this out'. They also use SMS and blogs to spread the word. We're working on how we can offer ways of distribution and promotion that match that. Already KaZaA users can create and share playlists with other users."
With last week's beta release of KaZaA v2.6, Sharman has added features designed to attract users away from illegal downloads. The launch of "KaZaA Kapsules," for instance, enables artists to offer value-added content with music, video, lyrics and promo material wrapped in a single digital package.
But what if, despite these incentives, illegal downloads continue to flourish? Wayne Rosso, chief executive of Madrid-based Optisoft, a competitor to KaZaA, believes the structure of the record industry needs to be turned on its head.
"Record companies need to understand they're not in the business of selling CDs anymore. Their business is the transfer of data between high-speed networks and devices. Ninety nine per cent of downloads from iTunes are still too expensive, particularly when compared with free. We'd like to see the same business model as radio where we'd pay a share of our revenue. But it's up to the rights holders to get their act together. Frankly, that's not our job. We just provide the pipes."
One innovative approach being trialled in the UK at the moment is PlayLouder, the world's first ISP network to licence from music companies the right for its subscribers to operate within a private file sharing network.
Much like a radio station, payments will be paid to MCPS-PRS, the licensing body responsible for collecting royalties on behalf of music publishers and songwriters.
For around £25 per month, the bundled service will comprise broadband internet access and rights to download and stream music owned by supporting labels including Beggars Group, XL Recordings and V2 Music. PlayLouder is hoping some of the majors will be on-board for the launch of the service early next year.
Andy Heath of Beggars Group says: "What we're working on at PlayLouder is the notion of perceptively free at the point of consumption, a bit like radio. Of course, everybody listening to the radio is actually paying for it, but the consumer doesn't feel that they're paying for it."
Morris says it's difficult to predict what form of payments the industry will eventually settle on, but thinks we might end up with a hybrid.
"We'll go through a transition phase, and to get hung up on that phase and the way it works is pointless when we all know we're going to get to the right place in the end. I think we'll look back on this period and say that these discussions were rather quaint."
