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 (1914)

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:
1914
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 5
Leaf #:
00040
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
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

2490 Fred C. Aiken, Cross Examination. ber, in 'Chicago? A. Well, I don't remember distinctly as to whether or not the question of the next meeting was left to the committee, or whether it was decided there. I am not just sure on that. Q. I show you an advertisement, page 637 of the Moving Picture World, being in the issue of November 30th, 1907, and ask you if that refreshes your recollection as to the date of the meeting in Chicago to which you have just referred? A. Yes. Q. And when was that meeting held? A. I think it was held December 14th. It was some time in December, at the Grand Pacific Hotel. Q. I show you an article in the Moving Picture World, December 21st, 1907, at page 682, entitled "The U. F. S. P. A." Please look at that. A. Yes, sir. Q. I show you an account in the Show World, in the issue of December 28th, 1907, pages 10 and 11, being also an account of the meeting of December 14th at Chicago. The regular officers of the Association were elected at the Chicago meeting on December 14th? Mr. Kingsley : I object to the form of the question. The Witness: Yes, sir: By Mr. Orosvenor: Q. And you were elected the Vice-President? A. Yes, sir. Q. This article in the Moving Picture World which I have shown you states that George Spoor was there representing one of the film exchanges in Chicago. Do you recall his being present? Mr. Kingsley : 1 object to the question as incompetent, immaterial and irrelevant; also object to the question, as improper in form. The Witness : I believe that he was there. By Mr. Orosvenor: Q. Also George Kleine is reported to have been there.