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 1
Leaf #:
000130
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:
May 23, 2024
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108 Bulletins to Exhibitors. l Petitioner's Exhibit No. 45. Exhibitors' Bulletin— No. 3. MOTION PICTURE PATENTS COMPANY 80 Fifth Avenue New York City March 20, 1909. ROYALTIES FROM EXHIBITORS. 2 Supplementing and completing the arrangments already made by the Patents Company, the following final system has been adopted for the collection of royalties from exhibitors and this system goes into effect immediately. The various points which should be carefully noted by exhibitors, are as follows: 1. Upon receipt of a license fee from an exhibitor to whom a license has been granted, the Patents Company will immediately forward a receipt to the exhibitor and a 3 duplicate receipt to the rental exchange from whom the exhibitor takes service. 2. Exhibitors should be careful to forward license fees to the Patents Company in time to permit their rental exchange to receive the duplicate receipt before April 12th, for no exhibitor will be served by a licensed rental exchange after that date unless the rental exchange has received a duplicate receipt from the Patents Company for the license fee of the exhibitor. Hereafter bills for license fees will be mailed to exhibitors 30 days before date when license fee is due. 3. No receipt for current license fee will be given to an exhibitor who is in arrears for former license fees. 4. The statement of an exhibitor that he has forwarded his license fee to the Patents Company, but has not had time to receive his receipt, cannot be accepted by the rental exchange as authority for the supply of service.