Reading Comprehension

PT149 · S2 · P3 · Q18 Social Norms & Intellectual Property

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Passage A Comedians are not amused when their jokes are stolen, and for that reason we might expect joke-stealing disputes to ripen into lawsuits occasionally.

Topic

The protection of creative content (jokes and recipes) among comedians and chefs, and how social norms substitute for ineffective or unavailable legal protection.

Framework

Answer / Explain

Main Point

Even though comedians and chefs can’t rely on traditional intellectual property law to protect their jokes or recipes, both groups use strong social norms within their communities to regulate ownership, copying, and credit—effectively serving a legal-like function and preserving incentives for creativity. (Passage A, paragraph 3) (Passage B, paragraph 1)

P1: Comedy and Copyright Law

Comedians rarely take legal action against joke thieves, even though jokes can be technically protected by copyright. That’s because the cost of litigation is high, legal success is uncertain, and copyright law just doesn’t work well for comedians in practice.

P2: The Puzzle of Comedy Innovation

But if the law doesn’t protect comedians, why do they bother coming up with so much new material?

P3: Social Norms Among Comedians

It’s because comedians have their own system of social norms—a set of unwritten community rules—backed up by consequences like damaging someone’s reputation. This informal “norms system” does most of what copyright law would do: it lets comedians claim ownership, control use, punish joke theft, and gives them a reason to keep coming up with new ideas.

18.

The relationship described in passage A as holding between comedians and copyright law is most analogous to the relationship described in passage B as holding between chefs and which one of the following?

  1. intellectual property

    Bad Match

    Intellectual property is intellectual property in both passages. For comedians the IP is jokes and routines, and for chefs the IP is recipes. Comedians could protect their IP with copyright law, but seldom do. Chefs could protect their IP with trade secrecy law, but seldom do.

    16% picked this

  2. patent law

    Weak Match

    This is the second best answer, since we are told that recipes are rarely patentable, so maybe sometimes patent law could protect chefs the way that copyright law can protect comedians. But it sounds like copyright law is actually an available remedy (not practically, but legally) for comedians and that trade secrecy law is actually an available remedy for chefs. And the fact that we're told that chefs seldom use trade secrecy protections matches up with being told that comedians almost never use copyright protections. There's no corresponding line like that for patent law.

    12% picked this

  3. the combinations of ingredients in

    Bad Match

    The combinations of ingredients in a recipe is part of the specific intellectual property chefs are trying to protect. The setups and punchlines in a comedy routine are part of the specific intellectual property comedians are trying to protect. Combinations of ingredients = setups and punchlines and word choice of jokes

    2% picked this

  4. Correct

    trade secrecy law

    Why this is right

    Just as copyright law offers comedians protection (even though they almost never use it), so trade secrecy law offers chefs protection (even though they seldom use it).

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

    68% picked this

  5. social norms

    Bad Match

    Social norms = social norms, for both passages. Both comedians and chefs have intellectual property they want to protect. Both of them eschew the legal means available (copyright / trade secrecy law), and instead they both use social norms to protect their IP.

    3% picked this

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