December 2011 LSAT Section 4 Question 15

Copyright was originally the grant of a temporary government–supported monopoly on copying a work. Its sole purpose w...

shafieiava on February 26, 2020

Answer choice B

Can someone explain why answer choice B is incorrect? I thought that if authors were to circulate their work without expectation of compensation then this would make the purpose of copyright moot. Did I perhaps not interpret going beyond in the last sentence correctly ? Thanks in advance.

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SamA on February 27, 2020

Hello @shafieiava,

What was the sole purpose of copyright? To encourage the circulation of ideas by allowing people to make money off of their creations.

We need to complete the argument with an example of copyright laws going beyond this original purpose.

You asked about answer choice B. This is an example of how copyright laws may have been ineffective or unnecessary. However, "going beyond" implies that the copyright law fulfilled its purpose and then took it too far. This is better expressed by answer choice E. A dead author can no longer derive financial reward, so continuing to hold the copyright is beyond the original purpose.