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 #:
000230
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
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.

208 By-Laws, General Film Co. appoint to such offices, persons who appear to it to be well qualified to render the services required. The Board of Directors may at any time dismiss any person filling any of such offices, and the Executive Committee shall have like authority during the intervals between meetings of the Board. The salaries attached to such offices shall be fixed by the Board of Directors. Section 2. — Selection of Motion Pictures: All motion pictures that the Company requires at each place of business that it operates in conducting that part of its business which consists in the leasing of motion pictures from the manufacturers and importers thereof, and the sub-leasing of such motion pictures to exhibitors of motion pictures, shall be selected by the representatives of the Company in charge of such places of business. The representative in charge of each such place of business that the Company operates, shall order directly from the manufacturers and importers of motion pictures, whose motion pictures the representatives of the Company are authorized by the Company to obtain and sub-lease, as many copies of any or all of the motion pictures of such manufacturers and importers, as each representative deems best in the interest of the Company, in conducting its business at the place of which he has charge. The representative of the Company in charge of each such place of business, shall mail each day to the Company at its office in New York City, correct copies of all orders that he sends to manufacturers and importers of motion pictures on that day. The Treasurer of the Company shall pay the manufacturers and importers of motion pictures, for all motion pictures that they supply to the Company at each place of business conducted by the Company, in filling orders given by the Company or its representatives in charge of its places of business. Section 3. — Auditing Committee: The Board of Directors shall appoint an Auditing Committee consisting of two directors. The President and Treasurer of the Company and mem