Q16

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

16. (A)
Question Type: Inference
(6-9) The owners of intellectual property would want to restrict the use of that property by others. Thus, strengthening copyright laws would mean making these laws more restrictive.

Incorrect Answers
(B) is an unsupported interpretation.
(C) is an unsupported interpretation.
(D) is an unsupported interpretation.
(E) is an unsupported interpretation.

[josh.glenn44]

I thought 'D' was an attractive answer here.

line 20: "current copyright laws give owners of intellectual property the right to sue"

My mind started swimming here:

'the right to sue'?, that sounds pretty restrictive as to what other people are allowed to do. after all, if someone can sue me, that makes me feel restricted->

'seems like the law needing to be better enforced is the real problem here, so people don't have to bother with the act of sueing'->

'wait...isn't there some sort of oversight in place already that tries to watch out for these 'links' or is the right to sue the only thing deterring these guys setting up links->

'if there is oversight being attempted, answer choice 'D' sounds good. people wouldn't have to sue. if there isn't any oversight being attempted, then I could interpret 'A' as maybe setting up some kind of oversight?'->

'crap! i've spent way too much time on this question...sounds like the folks wanting the laws strenghtened don't need more restrictions set up to deter the behavior of the people setting up the links, they can already sue. they must want more oversight/cyber police help. i guess i should just go with 'D''

the word restrict came up again in line 47, but i wasn't able to see how it could help answer this question...

Could you let me know exactly what was wrong with my thought process here? It feels like these answer choices are open to interpretation and the passage doesn't give enough information to really say answer choice 'A' is alone correct.

[josh.glenn44]

if you could, please show an example of how the law could be made more restrictive without also tying into "dutifully enforced"

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Hey Josh, good questions!

First, a law could be made more restrictive without it being dutifully enforced. Take for example a town that strengthens the rules limiting where one could smoke cigarettes. Before one could only smoke outside and now they prohibit smoking in all public places. The rule is made more restrictive, and yet, the enforcement of the rule could be no stronger than before. What if they never actually enforce the rule?

Second, stay close to the text identified in the question stem. Notice the questions stem indicates that you should be looking for the answer somewhere around line 8. Your line references were located too far away from the indicated text.

Good luck!