Ske. 6] PROPERTY 29 
to pay the annual sum of $8 to the —— Publishing Com- 
pany, provided that and so long as its newspaper is received 
and is satisfactory.” Thus good will is merely the right 
to a tacit, loose, and contingent promise of support and pat- 
ronage, less cost. The firm possessing good will owns a 
precarious yet valuable claim upon its patrons, namely, 
the chance of their continued patronage. The persons of 
these subscribers, and their other wealth, are what under- 
lie the property right, because they are the means to the 
desired services to which those rights apply. Of course 
the chance of obtaining these services is very much less 
than it would be if the services were specifically promised; 
but chance, either large or small, is involved in all property 
rights. 
In the same way, the “custom” of a tailor or the “prac- 
tice” of a physician is simply the right to the chance of 
future patronage. 
A franchise in the sense of a monopoly privilege granted 
by a government is quite different from a street railway 
franchise. The object of the monopoly is to prevent cer- 
tain acts of certain persons. The means to that end are, 
in the last analysis, the persons who are constrained to 
refrain, and the wealth withdrawn from competition. 
We may similarly regard a copyright. Recalling the 
case of the paper trust, part of whose property was the prom- 
ise of a paper manufacturer not to compete, we may regard 
a copyright as the right to a similar refraining from or re- 
straining of competition. At one time, an English pub- 
lisher would obtain the promise of an American publisher 
not to “pirate” his works. It would have been property 
of great value to the publishers of the Encyclopedia Bri- 
tannica if they could have prevented the pirating of their 
work in this country. Prevention can now be accomplished 
through the instrumentality of international copyright. 
The wealth underlying this property right is the wealth 
which, if employed in the specified line, would enter into