Q15

[irini101]

I have read the analysis but still confused by Q15.

I narrow down to B and E, the scope of which is unwarrantly larger then the passsage ("amplify" in A larger than "not impede" in the passage; "far outweigh" in E larger than "compromise" in the passage) but they are not major deficiencies compared to A--A does not cover the whole passage, it mentions only the main point of paragraph 3 and leaves out the first 2 paragraphs.

I think this main point question differs most other main point question in reading as none of the 5 choices perfectly fits the passage. We need to choose among answers that cover only part of the passage and unwarrantly enlarge the scope of passage.

So why we prefer A to B & E?

[maryadkins]

I wouldn't actually say that (A) leaves out the first two paragraphs. The first two paragraphs are about documents on the web and the legal issues that arise concerning their copyright. The fact that (A) cuts directly to the author's point doesn't mean it's not referencing these background paragraphs. It addresses documents on the web, which is everything that the first two paragraphs are about. See what I mean?

Regardless, you do work wrong to right. (B) and (E), as you noted, are too broad. (A) is the best answer here, even if you think it could more thoroughly address the first half of the passage.

[porsupuesto3798]

The central topic of the passage is the rights of owners of intellectual property on the Internet while (E) is saying something about exchange of ideas.

[melmoththewanderer88]

I was stuck between A and B here. I ultimately selected 'B' because I felt the example about the document was used to illustrate a point in support of a more general thesis that the changing the copyright law is ill-advised.

Is B incorrect because the fact that "changes... impeding the development is a cause for copyright law to be ill-advised" does not entail that "changes that... amplify the free exchange of ideas" is a necessary condition to change the law?

[noah]

Let's take a look at the whole thing.

For this question, we're asked to identify the main point.

Looking back at the passage, the passage map is:

P1: introduce context of scale--how do copyright laws apply to the Web?
P2: focus on scale--does a link to a page = copyright infringement?
P3: scale detail (analogy) & author's opinion--links do not qualify as copyright infringement

The passage is concerned with a specific application of copyright law, and the author makes his or her opinion clear, and so (A) is the main point.

As for the wrong answers:

(B) is too broad. The passage focused on a specific issue and never returned to general issues about the web and copyright laws. Plus, there was no discussion of democracy.

(C) is way too narrow, referring to a small detail.

(D) is unsupported and too broad. Where's the web? Where's the issue of linking to a page? And who says that anything was commonsense?

(E) is too broad, similar to (B) (though without a reference to democracy). And who says anything is radical?

[JenniferK632]

Could you explain why C is too narrow? A and C seem really similar here.

It seems that ultimately, in the telephone analogy, it is A's responsibility to restrict access. I perceived these two sentences to be the conclusion of the passage:

"Such a solution would compromise
(50) the openness of the Web somewhat, but not as much as
the threat of copyright infringement litigation.
Changing copyright law to benefit owners of
intellectual property is thus ill-advised because it
would impede the development of the Web as a public
(55) forum dedicated to the free exchange of ideas."

Let's take a look at the whole thing.

For this question, we're asked to identify the main point.

Looking back at the passage, the passage map is:

P1: introduce context of scale--how do copyright laws apply to the Web?
P2: focus on scale--does a link to a page = copyright infringement?
P3: scale detail (analogy) & author's opinion--links do not qualify as copyright infringement

The passage is concerned with a specific application of copyright law, and the author makes his or her opinion clear, and so (A) is the main point.

As for the wrong answers:

(B) is too broad. The passage focused on a specific issue and never returned to general issues about the web and copyright laws. Plus, there was no discussion of democracy.

(C) is way too narrow, referring to a small detail.

(D) is unsupported and too broad. Where's the web? Where's the issue of linking to a page? And who says that anything was commonsense?

(E) is too broad, similar to (B) (though without a reference to democracy). And who says anything is radical?

[Laura Damone]

Hi there!

I would characterize C as a major premise of the argument, rather than the argument's conclusion, and I think the part of the passage you cite bears that out well!

C is basically the first sentence that you cited. But look what happens next: "Changing copyright law to benefit owners of intellectual property is thus ill-advised...". That "thus" tells us that the first sentence is used as evidence supporting the claim in the second sentence. It is the claim in the second sentence, then, that is the conclusion of this argument. A Main Point question is looking first and foremost for the conclusion of the argument, so I would not select answer choice C.

Regarding the scope of C, check out the affected parties (as in, the people at whom the claim is directed.) C is directed at "people who are concerned about the access others may have...". In other words, it's directed at the copyright holders. A, on the other hand, is much more broad. It is directed at anyone thinking about what should and should not be considered a copyright infringement. That matches the scope of the passage better.

Finally, regarding passage structure, think of this as a "question and answer" passage. The passage poses a question (the last sentence of paragraph 2), and the main point of the passage is to answer it. Answer choice A fits this bill much better than answer choice C.

Hope this helps!

[ViolaL942]

I could understand that B, C, D & E are all wrong but can someone tell me why A is correct?
In my understanding the main purpose of this article is to argue against the idea of modifying the law. Therefore I think A doesn't catch the main point?
Thanks very much.

[DominicK38]

At first I wasn't sure what to do about this question since this article gives a distinct conclusion and I wasn't sure how relevant that must be to the main point. After much deliberation on this question (like 6:50 of my 35 minutes haha), I picked A because I decided an article's conclusion and main point are not necessarily the same thing (especially since articles are typically excerpts). I didn't really like that A didn't specifically mention the changing of copyright laws (conclusion), but I felt it did a good enough job of summarizing the argument made by the author and linking it to the issue of copyright infringement in general that it was better than the others.

For the other answer choices, I eliminated each because:
B) The article doesn't mention amplifying the free exchange of ideas at all. This choice also mentions "democracy" which isn't directly a huge theme here.
C) Although this is supported by the text, it's more of a supporting premise than the main point. This neglects to mention the legal issues that much of the article focuses on.
D) The level of difficulty for solving these IP rights issues isn't relevant enough to be the main point, I would say it's more of a supporting premise. The "commonsense principles" part really made me cross this one out, since although the mentioned protections could perhaps be described as "commonsense," the article doesn't emphasize/support this enough for it to be the main point.
E) I had this one selected for about 3 minutes. In the end, I decided that the article didn't discuss enough the "benefits" of the free exchange of ideas. I also thought that "small number of individuals" was too limiting, "radical alteration" was a bit extreme, and that these laws weren't necessarily aimed at "restricting the web's growth."

I know some of this has been mentioned previously, but this question frustrated me so much that I felt it might be useful to outline my decision-making process for others who felt the same way. Hope this helps!