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 #:
000375
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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William 11. Swanson, Direct Examination. 353 dor's name is to be placed thereon, provided, that in making any title by the purchaser, the vendor's trade-mark shall not be reproduced. 8. The purchaser shall return to the vendor (without receiving any payment therefor, exeept that the vendor shall pay transportation charges incident to the return of the same) on the first day of every month, commencing seven months from the first day of the month on which this agreement is executed, an equivalent amount of positive motion picture film in running feet (not purchased over twelve months before) and of the vendor's make, equal to the amount that was so purchased during the seventh month preceding the date of each such return, with the exception however, that where any such motion pictures are destroyed or lost in transportation or otherwise, and proof satisfactory to the vendor is furnished as to such destruction or loss, the vendor shall deduct the amount so destroyed or lost from the amount to be returned. 9. The purchaser shall not rent out licensed motion pictures below the minimum rental schedule above set forth, or any substitute or substitutes therefor, which may be regularly adopted by the vendor, and of which the purchaser shall have notice. 10. The purchaser shall not offer any inducements or concessions in the form of premiums or rebates or furnish to the exhibitor any supplies or merchandise by which, either directly or indirectly, the licensed motion pictures will in effect be rented at prices below said minimum rental schedule. 11. The purchaser shall not sell, rent, loan or otherwise dispose of any of the vendor's licensed motion pictures (however the same may have been obtained) to any person, firm or corporation in the exhibition business, who may have violated any of the terms or conditions imposed by the vendor through any of its other vendees and of which violation the present purchaser may have had notice. 12. The purchaser shall not rent out licensed motion pictures to any exhibitor unless a contract with said exhibitor (satisfactory in form to the vendor) is first exacted,