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 3
Leaf #:
00076
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:
July 11, 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.

1302 H. N. Marvin, Direct Examination. By Mr. Kingsley: Q. I show you Exchange Bulletin No. 36, under date of August 27th, 1912, and ask you if that is a bulletin, or a copy of a bulletin, sent out by the Motion Picture Patents Company to the licensed rental exchanges, on or about that date. A. It is. Mr. Kingsley : I offer it in evidence. The Exchange Bulletin offered in evidence is marked "Defendants' Exhibit No. 43," and is as follows : Defendants' Exhibit No. 43. Exchange Bulletin — No. 36. MOTION PICTURE PATENTS COMPANY 80 Fifth Avenue New York City August 27th, 1912. Pursuant to Paragraph 20 of your License Agreement, you are hereby notified that the Conditions of License have been changed, by the cancellation of Paragraph 9 thereof and the substitution therefor of the following : 9. The Licensee shall on the first day of every month return to each Licensed Manufacturer or Importer (without receiving any payment therefor, except that the said Licensed Manufacturer or Importer shall pay the transportation charges incident to the return of the same) a number of reels of positive motion pictures of approximately 1,000 feet in length and of the make of the said Licensed Manufacturer or Importer, equal to the number of reels of approximately 1,000 feet in length of licensed motion pictures leased from said Licensed Manufacturer or Importer during the seventh month preceding the day of each such return, with the exception, however, that where any such motion pictures are destroyed or lost in transportation or otherwise, and satisfactory proof is furnished, within fourteen (14) days after such de