Questions for a P2P Downloading Panel Discussion?

George P. Burdell asks: "On April 5, Georgia Tech's Honor Advisory Council will host a panel discussion between opposing sides of the P2P downloading issue. Among other panel members, a representative from the RIAA has agreed to attend the event. The discussion is intended to raise the level of awareness of students who may think they know all they need to know about the issue. What are some of the pressing questions the tech community has for panel members on both sides of the issue?"

Comments

Question for RIAA

[justanyone]

For the RIAA:

It would seem that all information-based, intellectual property (IP) business models depend on either:
A. Being able to control the distribution medium;
B. Introducing risks or rewards that make payment preferable to nonpayment.

Option A seems to be doomed once the intellectual property is digitally transferrable in its entirity in a manageable size across the internet.

If intellectual property owners can divide the IP into a transferrable part and a non-transferrable part (like any Application Service Provider does), they can still succeed.

Option B includes the use of enforcement, which has a huge public relations downside. But, it can also dictate another pricing model. If there is a quality/reliability difference between acquiring a dataset (IP product) from a random location vs. getting it from a known good source, the consumer will prefer the better cost/benefit.

Isn't it safer to just acknowledge option B is the more sustainable option and pursue lower prices in a higher quality format?