"Realize that this technology is inexorable, and come to the table" is what Hemming said she would say to chief music-industry lobbyist Hilary Rosen and Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America.

It's a statement of characteristic cool for Hemming, who spoke by telephone from her home in Australia hours before Kazaa took another flogging on Capitol Hill last week.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., testified that peer-to-peer networks facilitate "a new era of easily obtainable pornographic material." Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, R-Va., said research shows that some users of file-sharing services unwittingly expose private information on their computers, including tax returns, Social Security numbers and medical records.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a musician himself, said that if nothing else could stop people from stealing copyrighted works, he would support using programs to damage the computers of those who do.

As chief executive of Australia-based Sharman Networks Ltd., which owns Kazaa, Hemming has heard it all before.

Kazaa and other file-sharing services have weathered blistering legal and public relations campaigns by the entertainment industry.

Yet file sharing is flourishing. The free Kazaa Media Desktop software has been downloaded more than 240 million times. Software from Morpheus, a similar service, has been downloaded more than 111 million times. Other similar services also have grown remarkably.

Hemming said Kazaa cannot control how consumers use its software, but the company does not condone piracy.

What the entertainment industries object to are people who copy audio and video discs in digital formats and make them available on file-sharing services. Industry efforts to encrypt the discs have been thwarted.