Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons^™

Rereading A Canonical Copyright Case: The Nonexistent Right To Hoard In Fox Film Corp. V. Doyal, Shane D. Valenzi

Shane D Valenzi

Do copyright owners have the right to hoard their creative works? The right to exclude on an individual basis is the keystone of copyright law, yet using copyright protection to prevent all public access to a work runs counter to the very premises upon which copyright law is based. This right to exclude the world from use of a creative work—referred to as the right to “hoard” by Justice O’Connor in Stewart v. Abend, is commonly traced to a Lochner-era tax case: Fox Film Corp. v. Doyal. This Article examines the right to hoard and its origins in Fox Film, …