Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Hard

PT123 S4 P3 Q19 Explanation

Web Intellectual Property

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

TopicsInferenceLaw

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Passage

The World Wide Web, a network of electronically produced and interconnected (or “linked”) sites, called pages, that are accessible via personal computer, raises legal issues about the rights of owners of intellectual property, notably those who create documents for inclusion on Web pages. Some of these owners of intellectual property claim that reduced, the Web cannot live up to its potential as an open, interactive medium of communication.

The debate arises from the Web’s ability to link one document to another. Links between sites are analogous to the inclusion in a printed text of references to other works, but with one difference: the cited document is instantly retrievable by a user who activates the link. This immediate accessibility creates a creator of another Web page, creates a link to A’s document, is B committing copyright infringement?

To answer this question, it must first be determined who controls distribution of a document on the Web. When A places a document on a Web page, this is comparable to recording an outgoing message on one’s telephone answering machine for others to hear. When B creates a link to A’s document, the development of the Web as a public forum dedicated to the free exchange of ideas.

What this question is testing

Inference

Your task

Find what must be true based on what the passage or stimulus states.

Common trap

Answers that are plausible or likely but not actually guaranteed by the text.

Winning move

Keep only the choice the statements fully support — eliminate anything that requires an extra assumption.

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

The question
19.

The passage most strongly implies which one of

Answer choices

  1. Too Strong: "no one is both"5% picked this

    There are no creators of links to Web pages who are also owners of intellectual

    Can't find anything in the passage that says people who put IP on the Web never create a link to another Web page.

  2. Correct68% picked this

    The person who controls access to a Web page document should be considered the distributor

    Why this is right

    The middle of the 3rd paragraph contains three sentences that support this, starting from "While B's link". This says that the A controls access to the document. A is offering it for distribution. B, who linked to A's document, is not making or distributing a copy of that document.

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

  3. Out of Scope: "privacy rights"10% picked this

    Rights of privacy should not be extended to owners of intellectual property placed

    The passage is about protecting the intellectual property rights of those who post their stuff on the Web. We never get into privacy rights. The author also does think that page owners have some IP rights; he thinks that page owners have the right to restrict access to the IP on their pages via passwords.

  4. Unsupported: "control over who reads"13% picked this

    Those who create links to Web pages have primary control over who reads the documents

    Our author thinks that page owners have primary control over who has access to the contents of their pages. That is very different from saying that people who link to pages have primary control over who reads the linked pages.

  5. Too Strong: "must be converted"4% picked this

    A document on a Web page must be converted to a physical document via printing before

    The author doesn't say anything this extreme. She doesn't think that linking to A's web page is infringing on A's rights, because A has made that page viewable by the general public. But she might still believe that if I copy the content on A's web page and then display it on my web page, then I am infringing on A's rights.

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