Self-study
Copyright statutes benefit society by providing incentive to produce original works, so some kind of copyright statute is ultimately justified. ███ █████ ████████ ████ █████████ █ ███████████ ████ ██ ███████ ███████ ████ ██████ █████████ ███████████ ██ ████ ██████████ █████████ ████████ █████ █████████ ██████████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ███████ ████████ ████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ███ ████████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████████ █████ ██ █████████ ██ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ █████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that copyright protection for the life of the author plus several decades is too long. This is because the societal benefit from the additional years of copyright is more than offset by the societal cost of creating monopolies in the copyrighted works. In other words, the societal cost of the additional years of protection outweighs the societal benefit.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that if the societal cost of additional years of copyright protection outweighs the societal benefit, this is something that makes those additional years of protection unjustified. The author also assumes that there aren’t non-societal benefits that could help justify the costs of additional years of copyright protection.
10.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ██████ ████ ████████ ████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ █████████
a
A statute should ██ ███████ ██ █ ███ ████ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ ████████████ ██ ███ █████
The argument’s reasoning has nothing to do with an inconsistency in copyright statutes. There’s nothing contradictory within the statutes. They have benefits, and they also have costs. That’s not a contradiction.
b
A statute should ██ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ██████████ █████████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ █████
The author never suggests that the original justification has changed. The argument is simply based on an assessment of costs and benefits, and the author doesn’t say that those costs/benefits have changed.
c
A statute that ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ████████
The author never presents a country in which copyright statutes are justified. He is simply criticizing certain countries’ copyright statutes.
d
A statute should ███ █████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ ██ █████ ████ ██ ███████ ████████ █████ ███████
The reasoning isn’t that copyright statutes are unjustified because they don’t enhance other rights. The reasoning is based on weighing costs/benefits. Copyright statutes may enhance the rights of the owner, so (D) wouldn’t help show some statutes are unjustified.
e
If a statute ██ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ██ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ████ ███ ████████ ███████ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████ █████
(E) connects the premise, which shows that the costs outweigh the benefits, to the judgment that copyright protections for life plus several decades are too long, or in other words, unjustified.