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 #:
000365
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.

Members, Film Service Association. 343 Q. Before the formation of the Patents Company had Kleine used more than three releases a week of foreign films? A. Quite a number more than that, yes, sir. Q. Yesterday, I understood you to testify that you had sold outright a large number of projecting machines prior to the formation of the Patents Company, which you had bought in the manner stated in your testimony. State whether or not the royalty which was imposed on the exhibitors, and in respect to which you have also testified, applied to projecting machines which had been sold prior to the date of the Patents Company. A. It applied to all machines regardless of the time they had been purchased by the owners. Q. These machines before January, 1909, had been sold without any condition attached thereto? A. Yes, sir. Q. To you by the manufacturer? A. I never heard of any condition. Q. I show you page 125, of Volume 2, of the Moving Picture World, purporting to give a list of members of the Film Service Association. Will you look that over and state whether that is a correct list of the association? A. For what period of time is this (referring to page 125 of Volume 2, of the Moving Picture World) ? Q. This is in the issue of February 15, 1908. A. (After examining page requested) : That is a correct list. Q. This list of members of the Film Service Association gives at the end the names of film manufacturers. Were those manufacturers there named also members of the Film Service Association? A. Yes, they were. Mr. Grosvenor: I ask that the list be marked as an exhibit and copied into the record. The list referred to of the members of the Film Service Association, shown at page 125, Volume 2, of The Moving Picture World, is marked Petitioner's Exhibit No. 90, and is as follows: Petitioner's Exhibit No. 90. MEMBERS OF THE FILM SERVICE ASSOCIATION. ALABAMA. Bailey Film Service, 110 21st St., Birmingham.