December 2012 LSAT Section 3 Question 5

Editorialist: Many professional musicians claim that unauthorized music–sharing services, which allow listeners to ob...

DDL on January 4, 2020

Not sure how the correct answer addresses the vulnerability?

Answer choice "A" (concludes that one party IS NOT blameworthy merely because another party IS blameworthy) doesn't seem to address the vulnerability. The record companies, publishers, managers, and other intermediaries are not blameworthy of robbing musicians of royalties in the same way as free music-sharing services are: record companies, publishers, managers, and other intermediaries are being paid for there contribution to the production of the music. Therefore, isn't the vulnerability that it concludes that one party is NOT blameworthy merely because another party is NOT blameworthy?

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Skylar on January 5, 2020

@DDL, maybe I can help.

You make the point that intermediaries are being paid for their contributions and therefore constitute a different case than that of free music-sharing services. However, the editorialist claims that these intermediates are taking "an inequitably large cut." This implies that the intermediaries are not taking proportional payment for their contributions, but are instead taking more than is fair and "robbing" musicians.

Does that make sense? Please let us know if you have any other questions and best of luck with your studies!

DDL on January 6, 2020

I see what you are saying and I got the question correct but I assumed it was a typo in the answer.
The conclusion, as I was understanding it, is that music-sharing services are not blameworthy of robbing musicians of their royalties because record companies, publishers, managers, and other intermediaries are not considered blameworthy, in spite of them taking an inequitably large cut of the revenues from music sales.
I did not find this to be an accurate juxtaposition of the two groups (Music-Sharing services and Music-industry professionals), as I have stated above.
Thus, the vulnerability in the argument is that it considers one group NOT blameworthy (Music-sharing services) because another group is NOT considered blameworthy (record companies, publishers, managers, and other intermediaries) for their actions, disregarding the variation between the two groups relationship with the musician.