Reading Comprehension

PT115 · S3 · P4 · Q24 Canadian Copyrights and Digitialization

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

  • Save & drill this skill — build targeted practice sets from questions like this one

  • Video walkthroughs — watch every question solved step by step

  • 81 official LSATs — as questions, timed sections & full-length tests

Start practicing free

The following passage was written in the mid-1990s.

Topic

The challenges posed by Internet digitalization to Canadian copyright law in the 1990s

Framework

Problem / Solution

Main Point

The rise of digitalization via the Internet has created serious challenges for Canadian copyright law, which isn’t well equipped to handle digital copies and distribution, leading to ongoing conflicts between information-sharing ideals and content creators' rights. **The Most Valuable Sentence:** The last part of the last paragraph sums it up best:

P1: Introduction – The Information Utopia vs. Reality

Many Internet users dreamed of free access to information, but now those dreams are colliding with the reality that copyrighted books, films, and music are being distributed without compensation to rights holders, creating conflict.

P2: Legal Ambiguity – Copyright Law Lags Behind Technology

Canadian copyright law hasn’t kept up with digital advances, especially "digitalization"—which allows limitless, rapid copying and global distribution. Since current law only bans unauthorized "material reproduction," it's unclear if digital copies even count, so there’s a gray area about whether it's illegal.

P3: Proposed Solution and Its Complications

Some want to explicitly ban unauthorized digital copying, but criminalizing digitalization raises difficult questions: Should everyone who receives or makes a copy be a criminal? How would you enforce these laws with so many users worldwide? Also, academic exemptions further muddy the waters. Even with legal updates, experts doubt the underlying conflict—Internet users vs. publishers—can be resolved easily.

24.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?

  1. Despite the widely recognized need

    Trap

    Wrong Focus Out of Scope: mounted legal challenges The main clause of this answer is that "users of the Internet have mounted many legal challenges". Was that the focus of this passage? Did we even enumerate any of them? Did we even mention them in passing? In all cases, no.

    7% picked this

  2. Correct

    Although the necessity of revising

    Why this is right

    This describes the Problem and indicates that we don't yet have a satisfactory Solution.

    Skill tested: Main Point · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

    89% picked this

  3. While the unauthorized reproduction and

    Wrong Takeaway

    The setup for this is fine, but the passage didn't indicate "it's only a matter of time". At the beginning of the 3rd paragraph, we just hear that some experts have proposed amending current law to include prohibitions on unauthorized digitalization. But then the author brings up several tricky issues with that proposal, so we have no reason to think that the proposal will come to fruition, it's just a matter of time.

    1% picked this

  4. Despite the fact that current

    Too Strong

    Too Strong: ought to be a crime The author, in the last paragraph, in considering a blanket rule that digitalization be considered a crime. She has major qualms with this. - Would only the initial act be criminal? - Would each copy be a separate instance of piracy, even for people who had no access to the original? The author thinks this rule has some tricky application and that we'd probably need to be nuanced in terms of under what circumstances we want to call this a crime. This answer choice, meanwhile, is much more strongly worded and is happy to call it all a crime.

    1% picked this

  5. Although legal experts in Canada

    Out of Scope

    Out of Scope: punish Too Strong: should clearly be a crime We can stop reading this before we hit the comma -- the passage never discussed what is the most effective way to punish unauthorized distributors? We also wouldn't agree to the second half of this answer, since the passage does not leave us with any clear consensus that experts all agree that we should clearly make all digitalization a punishable crime.

    1% picked this

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

Save this question, watch the video walkthrough, and drill similar questions in your LSAT Lab account.

Save and practice this skill
LSAT Lab

Turn this review into a targeted study plan.

Save this question, drill more like it, watch the video walkthrough, and track your progress in your LSAT Lab account.

Start practicing free