CAT 2024 Slot 1 · VARC · RC passage 4: Streaming, Physical Media and Lost Films

The full passage and all 4 questions (Q21–Q24) from CAT 2024 Slot 1, with answers and solutions.

The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.

In the summer of 2022, subscribers to the US streaming service HBO MAX were alarmed to discover that dozens of the platform's offerings – from the Covid-themed heist thriller Locked Down to the recent remake of The Witches – had been quietly removed from the service . . . The news seemed like vindication to those who had long warned that streaming was more about controlling access to the cultural commons than expanding it, as did reports (since denied by the show's creators) that Netflix had begun editing old episodes of Stranger Things to retroactively improve their visual effects.

What's less clear is whether the commonly prescribed cure for these cultural ills – a return to the material pleasures of physical media – is the right one. While the makers of Blu-ray discs claim they have a shelf life of 100 years, such statistics remain largely theoretical until they come to pass, and are dependent on storage conditions, not to mention the continued availability of playback equipment. The humble DVD has already proved far less resilient, with many early releases already beginning to deteriorate in quality. Digital movie purchases provide even less security. Any film "bought" on iTunes could disappear if you move to another territory with a different rights agreement and try to redownload it. It's a bold new frontier in the commodification of art: the birth of the product recall. After a man took to Twitter to bemoan losing access to Cars 2 after moving from Canada to Australia, Apple clarified that users who downloaded films to their devices would retain permanent access to those downloads, even if they relocated to a hemisphere where the [content was] subject to a different set of rights agreements. Thanks to the company's ironclad digital rights management technology, however, such files cannot be moved or backed up, locking you into watching with your Apple account.

Anyone who does manage to acquire Digital Rights Management free (DRM-free) copies of their favourite films must nonetheless grapple with ever-changing file format standards, not to mention data decay – the gradual process by which electronic information slowly but surely corrupts. Only the regular migration of files from hard drive to hard drive can delay the inevitable, in a sisyphean battle against the ravages of digital time.

In a sense, none of this is new. Charlie Chaplin burned the negative of his 1926 film A Woman of the Sea as a tax write-off. Many more films have been lost through accident, negligence or plain indifference. During a heatwave in July 1937, a Fox film vault in New Jersey burned down, destroying a majority of the silent films produced by the studio.

Back then, at least, cinema was defined by its ephemerality: the sense that a film was as good as gone once it left your local cinema. Today, with film studios keen to stress the breadth of their back catalogues (or to put in Hollywood terms, the value of their IPs), audiences may start to wonder why those same studios seem happy to set the vault alight themselves if it'll help next quarter's numbers.

Question 21 · Strengthen and Weaken Arguments

Which one of the following statements, if true, would best invalidate the main argument of the passage?
  1. A
    Studios and streaming services have committed to giving customers perpetual and platform independent access to the original digital content they have paid for.
  2. B
    When moving to a different geographical location, customers can easily use Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to bypass geo-blocking and regain access to their content on any streaming service.
  3. C
    Improved cloud storage services have made it possible for movie collections to now be preserved in perpetuity, without the need to keep migrating the files.
  4. D
    Recent research has irrefutably proven that Blu-Ray discs have a shelf life of at least 100 years.
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option A

First pin down the main argument. In the digital age, access to film is insecure and can be revoked: titles are quietly removed (HBO MAX), originals may be edited after the fact (Stranger Things), purchases vanish when you move country (iTunes and Cars 2), DRM locks files to one account, and even DRM-free files suffer from format changes and data decay. Behind it all, studios 'seem happy to set the vault alight themselves'. To invalidate this, a statement must guarantee lasting, unconditional access to what you paid for.

Option 1 does that. Perpetual, platform-independent access to the original content solves removal, territorial rights, DRM lock-in and retroactive editing at once – 'original' rules out silent changes, and 'platform independent' rules out account and format lock-in.

Option 2 deals only with geo-blocking, through a user workaround, and leaves removal, DRM and decay untouched.

Option 3 deals only with data decay and file migration; titles the platform withdraws or edits never reach the customer's cloud.

Option 4 rescues only Blu-ray discs, which the author treats as a proposed cure, not as part of his own argument.

Shortcut: to weaken an argument with several strands, prefer the option that cuts the shared root over options that knock out a single example.

Hence, the answer is option 1.

Question 22 · RC - Questions

"Netflix had begun editing old episodes of Stranger Things to retroactively improve their visual effects." What is the purpose of this example used in the passage?
  1. A
    To show that streaming services are controlling access to the cultural commons rather than expanding it.
  2. B
    To show a practice that justifies the fears of people who feel streaming services cannot be trusted to be custodians of cultural artefacts like film.
  3. C
    To show how unsubstantiated reports are leading to an increase in the level of distrust towards streaming services.
  4. D
    To show that art in the digital age, specifically film, is no longer sacrosanct, and may be changed to suit changing tastes or technology.
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option B

The sentence structure decides this. The passage says the HBO MAX news 'seemed like vindication to those who had long warned that streaming was more about controlling access to the cultural commons than expanding it, as did reports... that Netflix had begun editing old episodes'. 'As did' gives the Netflix report the same role as the HBO MAX news: it too seemed to vindicate the sceptics. It is a practice that bears out the fears of those who distrust streaming services as custodians of film.

Option 2 says this.

Option 1 gives the Netflix example the job of the HBO MAX example. Controlling access is about whether you can watch a title at all; editing is about whether what you watch is still the original.

Option 3 seizes on '(since denied by the show's creators)' and makes the unreliability of the report the point. The author cites it as supporting the sceptics, not as an example of rumour.

Option 4 may be true in general, but it does not say why the author uses the example at this point – to vindicate a stated warning.

Shortcut: in a purpose-of-example question, find the connective that attaches the example to the argument ('as did', 'for instance', 'yet'). It tells you which claim the example supports.

Hence, the answer is option 2.

Question 23 · RC Main Idea and Central Theme

Which one of the following statements about art best captures the arguments made in the passage?
  1. A
    As art is increasingly created, stored and distributed digitally, access to it is counterintuitively likely to be made more difficult by the rapid churn in technology and the whims of host platforms.
  2. B
    In the age of online subscription services, it is time to change our understanding of classic works of art being primarily immutable and easily available to the public.
  3. C
    Accepting retroactive changes to works of art is dangerous because it will encourage creators to not put enough effort into the original attempt, given that they can always edit or update their work later.
  4. D
    Works of art belong to the cultural commons and hence must remain available in perpetuity, irrespective of who pays for access to them.
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option A

The argument is deliberately counterintuitive: the technology that seems to make film endlessly available actually makes access more fragile. Two forces recur. The first is technological churn – 'ever-changing file format standards', 'data decay', the 'sisyphean battle' of migrating files, and discs that depend on 'the continued availability of playback equipment'. The second is platform discretion – HBO MAX removing titles, iTunes purchases vanishing, Apple's DRM, and studios willing to 'set the vault alight'.

Option 1 names both forces and states the paradox.

Option 2 recommends changing our expectations of art. The author never prescribes that; he complains that access is being eroded.

Option 3 builds on the Stranger Things example and invents a consequence – creators putting in less effort – that the passage never mentions.

Option 4 is a claim about what ought to happen. The passage describes what is happening, and the author is sceptical of easy remedies.

Shortcut: when an option contains 'counterintuitively' or a similar paradox word, test whether the passage really is built on a paradox. Here it is: digital should mean permanent, yet it means precarious.

Hence, the answer is option 1.

Question 24 · RC Inference Questions

Which of the following statements is suggested by the sentence "Back then, at least, cinema was defined by its ephemerality: the sense that a film was as good as gone once it left your local cinema"?
  1. A
    Presently, there is no reason why film studios should remove access to films once they have left the local cinema.
  2. B
    Around a century ago, people were more accepting of not having access to films once they left the local cinema.
  3. C
    Cinema is now no longer as ephemeral as it used to be earlier, because the technology used for creating and preserving films has improved manifold.
  4. D
    Today, films are expected to be available for a long time, since they are no longer tied solely to their stay at the local cinema.
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option D

'Back then, at least' is a contrast: it grants something about the past in order to criticise the present. In the age of Chaplin's burnt negative and the Fox vault fire, loss was built into the medium – a film really was gone once it left your local cinema, so nobody expected otherwise. The implied contrast is that today films are no longer tied to a cinema run. The next sentence confirms it: audiences 'may start to wonder why those same studios seem happy to set the vault alight themselves'. Audiences can only wonder if they expect films to stay available.

Option 4 states that expectation.

Option 1 turns an expectation into a rule – 'no reason why studios should remove access'. That is stronger than the sentence suggests, and the passage itself gives studios a reason (next quarter's numbers).

Option 2 confuses a feature of the medium with an attitude of the audience; the sentence describes how cinema worked, not how tolerant viewers were.

Option 3 says cinema is less ephemeral thanks to better technology – the very view the passage spends several paragraphs taking apart.

Shortcut: phrases like 'Back then, at least' or 'In those days, at least' always imply a 'but now' contrast. The correct inference states the present-day half of that contrast.

Hence, the answer is option 4.

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