Reading comp PrepTest 123 · Section 1 · Question 4

Topic: Legal

Paragraph 1

• Paragraph note
  • Court case - Facts and point at issue
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Case background:
    • Copy-shop owner charged with copyright violation in making course packs for a local university
  • Owner’s view:
    • The process of getting permission is too difficult, and course packs help students/professors
  • Comparison:
    • Copying for education is generally OK, but in this case , the copy-shop owner making copies for profit

Paragraph 2

• Paragraph note
  • Copyright law factors; Publisher argument; Ruling
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • List of factors
  • Publishers’ view:
    • Other copy shops won’t pay, lowering the value of the material (one of the factors)
  • Court’s ruling:
    • Sided with the copy-shop owner; educational purposes, plus fee based on copy costs, not material

Paragraph 3

• Paragraph note
  • More on the Court’s ruling
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Copy business based on services, not material
  • Professors/students can make copies, so they can pay others to make copies

Main Point: A court recently ruled that a copy-shop that makes copies of copyrighted materials for educational course packs doesn’t violate the copyright in that material since they’re selling services, not the material, and the students/professors who would otherwise copy the material are allowed to do so.

Lines 1-7 - The basis for the court case

Lines 15-20 - Relevant law and wrinkle in this case

Lines 27-31 - Publisher’s argument

Lines 35-44 - The Court’s ruling

Lines 50-54 - More on the Court’s ruling/reasoning

Reporting a Viewpoint: One common structure that legal studies passages can take is the reporting of a court’s decision. When a single case makes up the entirety of the passage and the author doesn’t weigh in on whether they agree with the court’s decision, we typically find that the Reporting a Viewpoint Meta-Structure applies. And when that’s the case, there are some important pieces of information you should always focus on: the underlying facts/question of law; the arguments from both sides; the court’s ruling; the court’s rationale.

Here, the underlying details are raised in Lines 1-7, suggesting the question, “Can a copy-shop owner legally provide copies of copyrighted educational material to students and professors?” The copy-shop owner’s argument is highlighted in Lines 10-16. The publishers’ arguments show up in Lines 28-31. The rest of the passage goes through the court’s ruling and rationale — this isn’t a violation of copyright law because the shops are selling services, not the copyrighted materials, and the students/professors can legally make copies under the education exception. This ruling and rationale also make up the main point of the passage.

List: Lines 21-27 provide a list of factors relevant in considering a copyright case. This is a limited list that plays into the publishers’ argument and the Court’s ruling, so it’s likely to show up as one or two questions instead of as a central focus of big-picture questions.

This legal passage is actually pretty nice in that it clearly outlines each important element that we should be looking for in such a passage! As such, we should be sure to know where each piece is located so that we can more easily find the relevant information for each question.