LSAT 130, Section 2, RC Passage 3, Tangible-Object Theory

RC Passage 3 Explanation

PASSAGE TEXT: Proponents of the tangible-object theory of copyright argue that copyright and similar intellectual- …

Paragraph Summaries

1. The tangible ownership theory of copyright says that all copyrightable things have a physical form like a book. We have rights to do stuff with those physical forms. Copyright is an extension of those rights.
2. Copyright is therefore viewed as an owner retaining some rights in the object when transferring it – just like a landowner may retain some rights in land when selling.
3. There are two problems with this theory:
   i. Some copyrightable things have no physical form, such as a live broadcast.
   ii. It is the intangible idea itself that is often the most valuable. It is the person who composes a poem who has done the work, not the person who writes down the poem.

Analysis

Basically, tangible copyright is a theory designed to get around the idea that people can own intangible things (See lines 35-39). I mean, how can you own a poem or a song, right?

The theory has some logic to it, but ultimately the author thinks it fails for things that have no physical form, and in cases where the intangible idea is more important than the physical form. E.g. an author dictating a book to a typist.