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 000164 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 #:
000164
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
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.

142 Ag'Tj Biograph Co. and Kleine, Feb. 18, 1908. shall be rendered by the party of the first part upon the importation of positive films, payment therefor to become due upon sale thereof by any of the parties of the second, third and fourth parts. As to stocks of positive films on hand on March 2nd, 1908, invoices for one-half (%) cent per lineal foot shall be rendered and payment become due on sales of such stocks. As to imported negatives, payment of one-half (y2) cent per foot shall be made at once upon printing of positives therefrom. As to positive films made in the United States from imported negatives, invoices for one-half (y2) cent per foot shall be made and payments become due against sales of positives. 3. The party of the first part hereby agrees to license the parties of the second, third and fourth parts to make, use and vend the motion picture films described in section 4 hereof, for use in projecting machines such as are described in the Latham United States patent No. 707934, dated August 26th, 1902, and owned or controlled by the said party of the first part, and it does so license the parties of the second, third and fourth parts, upon the terms and conditions of this agreement, or upon equally as favorable terms and conditions as are now or may hereafter be established by the said first party with reference to the use of films of its own manufacture in such projecting machines ; and upon the further expressed conditions that motion picture films handled by the said parties of the second, third and fourth parts, shall be sold by them to established rental exchanges at not less than a minimum price of eleven (11) cents per lineal foot; and sold to all other customers at not less than a minimum price of fourteen (14) cents per lineal foot; or at such other prices as the party of the first part may hereafter determine and establish. 4. All the parties hereto agree that this agreement shall extend to all importations of positive and negative films from whatever producer, and to positive films therefrom printed in this country; but not in any way to negatives produced in this country or to apparatus for producing negatives. 5. The party of the first part agrees for itself that it will defend, through its own counsel and at its own expense,