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)

Page scan 00070 from 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 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 1
Leaf #:
00070
Language:
English
Collection:
Government & Law and Early Cinema
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 12, 2024
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48 Circulars to Film Rental Exchanges. toiners who have been licensed by us, as complete as the rush of applications which we were compelled to handle during the past week permitted. We hand you enclosed a list complete to date and beg to advise you that in accordance with our letter of the 5th inst. you are to discontinue service to each of your customers whose name does not appear upon this list, unless on or before February 13th such customer has forwarded his application for license to the Patents Company accompanied by the license fee of f 10. LICENSE FEE. The license fee between February 1st and March 8th, 1909, will be uniform in every case, the amount being $10 regardless of when the licensed service may have begun. This initial fee is fixed as a preliminary fee from each theatre in order to meet organization expenses and cover part of the heavy charges incident to installing our plant, which Ave purpose to maintain for the benefit of our licensees, and particularly for the use of the licensed theatres. After March 8th, 1909, as you have already been advised, the royalties of the various theatres will be adjusted so that many of the smaller theatres will only pay $1 per week and in some cases the license fee will be less than that. NEW APPLICATIONS. As fast as further applications are received from your customers we shall in all cases, where we decide to grant the application, advise you at once that a license has been issued. These communications will come to you in the form of lists, which should be at once added or attached to the original which we are sending you to-day so that you may at all times have a complete record before you of those theatres whom you may serve. NEW CUSTOMERS. You may take on as a new customer, at any time, any theatre which has one of our license certificates, or which