Punk bands aren't the only ones who get accused of selling out. In the digital music underground, Kazaa, one of the most popular peer-to-peer file trading programs, is riding the rocky road to mainstream success -- and in danger of leaving its most diehard fans behind.

Kazaa is the free Dutch-based software that has become one of the leading contenders for the coveted title of "the next Napster." Running over a decentralized network of computers, Kazaa lets surfers swap everything from the latest Goo Goo Dolls' tracks to the latest Janine Lindemulder video -- basically, anything else that can be digitized into bits. According to CNET's Download.com, the program has been sucked down about 60 million times.

Kazaa's journey to crassness began, ostensibly, in January, when it was sold to a company called Sharman Networks. This happened, in part, because Kazaa was being threatened with a Napster-like lawsuit for contributing to copyright infringement. With Sharman at the helm, Kazaa experienced immediate success by winning a ruling in Dutch court that said the company wasn't liable for illegal trades made using its software. Then, the problems began: Sharman cashed in.

In April, Kazaa fans -- the very same people who helped the service become a grassroots phenomenon -- were outraged to learn that the program was secretly employing "spyware:" software that relays user information to potential advertisers. Within days, a Russian hacker created and freely distributed a spyware-free version called Kazaa Lite. "I only want to make it clear that Kazaa has to stop misleading the people who use their software," the programmer said in a statement.

Though Sharman tried fighting back by warning that "consumers are being deceived with ripped off and highly suspect code," the damage was done. In the peer-to-peer underground, secrets -- let alone spyware secrets -- are something of a mortal sin. Though only 80,000 have since downloaded Kazaa Lite, it's enough to inspire Sharman to take legal action of its own. Now the company is in the ironic and unseemly position of prosecuting hackers much in the way that the Recording Industry has tried to go after Sharman itself.

So why would Sharman go after its own? Because it has ad plans of its own. As it recently revealed, Sharman will soon be releasing a new version of the program that will pummel the users with annoying pop-up advertisements. It will also be selling a "premium" version of Kazaa that will enable subscribers to use the program ad-free. In other words, it's going to be releasing its own equivalent of Kazaa Lite -- which is why it wants the underground kids to back off.

Sure, Sharman is entitled to make money -- but why go about it so stupidly? One truism of the digital music underground is that what kills one program makes another stronger. Napster's death only bred more indestructible equivalent wares. There is absolutely no way that Sharman will be able to thwart the innovation of ad-free file trading sites. And to pretend that it can will only alienate itself from the marketplace and give power to populist Gnutella wares like LimeWire and Bearshare.

DAVID KUSHNER
(April 29, 2002)