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 2
Leaf #:
000451
Language:
English
Collection:
Early Cinema and Government & Law
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:
June 13, 2024
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Joseph Hopp, Direct Examination. 1069 By Mr. Grosvenor: 1 Q. Look them over, Mr. Hopp, please, and then I will have them put in evidence if you will identify them as letters received by your company from the Patents Company. A. Do you want one blanket answer to all of them? Q. Look at every one and then you can answer them all. A. (witness examines papers) : Yes, they were typical of the correspondence sent me. Mr. Kingsley: I move to strike out the answer of the witness as a conclusion, and a characteri 2 zation, and as being argumentative. Mr. Grosvenor: I will offer those in evidence, and ask the Examiner to mark them separately in the order in which they occur, please, and then copy them in the record. The papers identified by the witness are marked in evidence as Petitioner's Exhibits 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196 and 197, respectively, and are as follows: