LSAT 157 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q9

LR Question 9 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Most lawyers hold that violations of the rights of those who…

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning

CONCLUSION: It is reasonable to extend laws against encroachment on real estate to apply to encroachments on intellectual property.

REASONING: The terminology used when referring to encroachments on the rights of those who own Internet sites is similar to the terminology used to refer to encroachments on real estate.

ANALYSIS: This is a pretty absurd argument. The author says that the terminology is similar between physical sites and Internet sites, so the same laws that apply to physical sites should be extended to Internet sites. But words are just that, words. The terminology isn’t similar because the two are essentially the same thing. It’s similar because someone decided that physical property was an easy metaphor to use when explaining how the Internet works. That definitely doesn’t mean the laws should be the same.

___________

1. This is true, but the author isn’t saying that Internet property is widely considered physical property. They’re saying that it’s similar and should be treated similarly.
2. The author isn’t presupposing anything in a premise. Their premises are wildly insufficient to show their conclusion, but at least they aren’t presupposing.
3. Nothing in the author’s argument provides evidence against it being reasonable to extend real estate laws to apply to intellectual property.
4. CORRECT. See above. The author has only told us that they’re comparable on a linguistic level, not in any meaningful way.
5. The author’s view isn’t based on the view of experts. In fact, the author said that most lawyers believe that copyright law is the best way to protect intellectual property.

Recap: The question begins with “Most lawyers hold that violations of the rights of those who”. It is a Flawed Reasoning question. Learn how to master LSAT Flaw questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.