Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Hard

PT123 S1 P1 Q1 Explanation

Course Packs and Copyrights

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

TopicsMain PointLaw

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Passage

In a recent court case, a copy-shop owner was accused of violating copyright law when, in the preparation of “course packs”—materials photocopied from books and journals and packaged as readings for particular university courses—he copied materials without obtaining permission from or paying sufficient fees to the publishers. As the owner of five that the copying of course packs was done by a copy shop and at a profit.

Copyright law outlines several factors involved in determining whether the use of copyrighted material is protected, including: whether it is for commercial or nonprofit purposes; the nature of the copyrighted work; the length and importance of the excerpt used in relation to the entire work; and the effect of its use on the works he copied; he charged by the page, regardless of whether the content was copyrighted.

In the court’s view, the business of producing and selling course packs is more properly seen as the exploitation of professional copying technologies and a result of the inability of academic parties to reproduce printed materials efficiently, not the exploitation of these copyrighted materials themselves. The court held that copyright laws do a third party in order to obtain those same copies at lesser cost.

What this question is testing

Main Point

Your task

Capture the passage's overall primary point — the claim everything else supports.

Common trap

Answers that are true but too narrow (a single paragraph) or too broad (beyond the passage's scope).

Winning move

Summarize the whole passage in one sentence first, then match it to a choice.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
1.

Which one of the following most accurately states the main point of

Answer choices

  1. Correct71% picked this

    A court recently ruled that a copy shop that makes course packs does not illegally exploit copyrighted materials but rather it legally exploits

    Why this is right

    The answer accurately captures the ruling of the court, and since the author never editorialized or contextualized this case, the biggest idea we have in the passage is the court's ruling. This answer matches the language of the final paragraph well.

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

  2. Opposite6% picked this

    A court recently ruled that course packs are protected by copyright law because their price is based solely on the number

    The court ruled that copy shop owners are not violating copyright law because they're charging solely based on page count, not based on content. In doing so, the court essentially said that course packs are not a potential source of copyright infringement.

  3. Not the Recent Ruling6% picked this

    A court recently ruled that the determining factors governing the copyrights of material used in course packs are how the material is to be

    The beginning of the 2nd paragraph explains the determining factors governing copyrights, according to established copyright law. This copy shop course case didn't establish these factors. This recent case just said, "Taking into consideration the established determining factors, we rule that the copy shop owner did nothing wrong."

  4. Distorted Ruling: right to seek suit11% picked this

    A recent court ruling limits the rights of publishers to seek suit against copy shops that make course

    This feels very close to being right, but the court didn't limit the right to seek suit. That would mean that they are saying, "Publishers, you're not allowed to sue these copy shops". The court isn't preventing them from seeking suit, but it's establishing a precedent that would make them less likely to seek suit. The publishers are still free to seek suit; they will just be thinking, "The judge is probably going to rule against us, like they did in that copy shop case".

  5. Too Narrow6% picked this

    Exceptions to copyright law are made when copyrighted material is used for educational purposes and no party makes a

    This doesn't reference the central topic (the copy-shop court case), so we know it can't be the main point.

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