In the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States of America, petitioner, vs. Motion Picture Patents Company, et al., defendants (1913)

Record Details:

Title:
In the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States of America, petitioner, vs. Motion Picture Patents Company, et al., defendants
Date:
1913
Publisher:
New York, Appeal Printing Co.
Volume:
In the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States of America, petitioner, vs. Motion Picture Patents Company, et al., defendants : record volume 3
Leaf #:
00096
Language:
English
Collection:
Early Cinema and Government & Law
Format:
Periodicals
Contributor:
The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
These seven volumes contain the testimonies and supporting documents from the U.S. District Court's antitrust lawsuit against the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC). Formed in 1908, the MPPC (sometimes referred to asœ"the Edison Trust" or just "the Trust") sought to control the American film industry through pooling patents and demanding that producers and exhibitors acquire licenses to those patents. Independent producers and exhibitors, who refused to license the patents, argued that the MPPC was an unlawful monopoly. In 1912 and 1913, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania heard testimonies from both MPPC members, such as Siegmund Lubin, and "Independents" who later became Hollywood moguls, such as William Fox. Ultimately, in 1915, the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which found the MPPC in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act and spelled the end for the already weakening MPPC. -- Eric Hoyt, 2012
Date Added:
September 21, 2023
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1322 H. N. Marvin, Direct Examination. and (2) that the lessee shall not make or permit others to make any reproduction commonly known as a "dupe" of such positive motion picture and (3) that the lessee shall not sub-lease the same for use on projecting machines containing the inventions, or some of them, of Letters Patent Nos. 578,185, 580,749, 586,953, 588,916, 673,329, 673,992, 707,934, 722,382, 744,251, 770,937, 771,280, 785,205 and 785,237, until such lessee has entered into an agreement in writing with the Licensor containing terms and conditions to be prescribed therein by it, and only while such lessee complies with all such terms and conditions and while such agreement remains in full force and effect; and (4) that the lessee of such positive motion picture shall not remove the trade-mark or trade name or title therefrom; and (5) that if the lessee sub-leases motion pictures as provided in (3) hereof, he shall return to the Licensee (without any payment therefor except the transportation charges incident to the return of the same) on the first day of every month, beginning with July, 1913, an amount in running feet of positive motion pictures (on film of a greater width than approximately one and oneeighth (1%) inch) of the make of the Licensee equal to ninety (90) per cent, of the amount that was so leased during the seventh month preceding the date of each such return, with the exception, however, that where any such positive motion pictures are destroyed by fire or lost in transportation, and proof satisfactory to the Licensee is furnished as to such destruction or loss, the amount so destroyed or lost shall be deducted from the amount to be returned as aforesaid; and (6) that the violation of any of the foregoing conditions, including the terms and conditions of the agreement referred to in condition (3) above, entitles the lessor to immediate possession of such motion picture without liability for any price which the lessee, or the person in whose possession it is found, may have paid therefor. 25. The Licensor and the Licensee further mutually covenant and agree that the Licensee shall not have the right under this license to supply motion pictures to any one who uses said motion pictures or sublets them for use, in the "lease territory aforesaid," on projecting machines containing the inventions, or some of them, of said