Fun With Analogies

Practice SAT Question:

Artists are to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) as ______________ is to OPEC.

Choose the most correct answer:

a) Oil.
b) Oil-rich state governments.
c) Arab governments.
d) Palestinians.

The correct answer is, of course, D. Leaders of the oil-rich Muslim states love to talk a big game when it comes to protecting the Palestinians, Defeating the Zionists, etc etc. The Saudis in particular have made ritualistic anti-semitism in to a fine performance art. Of course, when it comes to actually cutting a cheque, oil-rich arab states have been less than forthcoming.

Similarly, the RIAA and MPAA love to put people like Metallica in front of the cameras, talking about how copyright has to be respected, or else poor artists would all starve. At the same time, a new artist is lucky to see more than a fraction of a per cent on their record sales. Even an establised bestelling band is unlikely to see more than 5% of their sales come back to them. So you tell me - what's going to protect artists interests more: Lengthening the already-ridiculous length of copyright, or maybe bumping artists percentages up by one or two percent?