Social Norms & Intellectual Property

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Strong: rarely5% picked this

   Comedians rarely acknowledge the degree to which their own comedic material is influenced by the

   This isn't any moment in the passage where the author is saying "most comedians don't appreciate enough how much their material is influenced by others". Influence ≠ joke-stealing, by the way, so this is really drifting out of scope.

   5%
2. B

   Correct86% picked this

   Comedians would be more likely to protect their comedic material through copyright law if they had greater assurance that they could successfully bring infringement

   Why this is right

   This answer has the classic "Flip the Causal Difference-Maker" form. For example, if the passage said, "Marie never felt like she belonged in her group of friends, because she was the only one with red hair", then a supportable (though not must-be-true) inference is something like, If the Causal Difference-Maker (red hair) were absent, then the Effect (feeling like she didn't belong) would be less present. Maria would be more likely to feel like she belonged if her hair were a color besides red. Passage A told us in the first paragraph that there were two big reasons why comedians don't use copyright law to protect their material: - it's very expensive - it's pretty hard to win a case (legal hurdles that make success difficult and uncertain in lawsuits relating to joke stealing) So this answer is flipping that and saying, "If it success weren't so uncertain, then they'd be more likely to use copyright law". An interchangeably correct answer could have said, "If the cost of enforcing copyright law weren't prohibitively expensive, then more comedians would use copyright law".

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

   86%
3. C

   Out of Scope: trade secrecy law1% picked this

   Creative rights to jokes and comedic routines should be protected by trade secrecy law rather

   We never hear about trade secrecy law until Passage B.

   1%
4. D

   Opposite5% picked this

   The system of social norms operative among comedians is not robust enough to allow comedians to be properly compensated for the expenses they

   The author of Passage A seems to be impressed by the effectiveness of the system of social norms, whereas this answer choice makes it sound he's disappointed in it. The final sentence of Passage A says that "Using this informal system (of social norms), comedians are able to .... maintain substantial incentives to invest in new material", which indicates that they are properly compensated for their expenses in developing new material.

   5%
5. E

   Opposite3% picked this

   In the particular context of stand-up comedy, no informal system for protecting intellectual property can be as effective

   The author of Passage A seems to be impressed by the effectiveness of the informal system of social norms, whereas this answer choice makes it sound he's disappointed in it. The first sentence of Passage A's final paragraph says that "even though there's no effective legal (formal) protection again joke theft ... social norms substitute for intellectual property law. Taken as a whole, this norms system [basically] parallels the formal copyright system." And the final sentence of Passage A again affirms that this system of norms is doing quite well at being an effective enforcement mechanism of IP protection.

   3%