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 (1914)

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:
1914
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 5
Leaf #:
00058
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:
September 21, 2023
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2508 Petitioner's Exhibit No. 263. * formed an association under the name of the "Film Service Association"), have admitted that the conditions imposed by our licenses represent the only possible way to save the business of the exhibitor and the exchanges from ruin. .For this reason they have decided to use exclusively licensed motion pictures manufactured under the Edison patents, and they have agreed to be bound by contracts of sale imposed by the undersigned and the seven licensed manufacturers above referred to, in which the conditions imposed by our license are expressed. 2 Position of Exhibitors. The position of each exhibitor who may wish to handle licensed pictures and avoid the danger and expense involved in using infringing pictures, will be as follows : (1) The exhibitor will have to rent films exclusively from exchanges who have agreed by contract to conform to the conditions imposed by the licenses, under the Edison patents. (2) The exhibitors will have to pay for service not less than the agreed minimum rental schedule. 3 (3) Each exhibitor will have to sign a contract for each of his shows, with his exchange, for licensed motion pictures, such contract obliging the exhibitor to give a guarantee bond and preventing him from sub-renting films which are supplied to him. Will Protect Licensees. For our part we have obligated ourselves so far as lies within our power, as the owner of the Edison patents, to protect our licensees, whether they be manufacturers of 4 licensed films, exchanges exclusively handling the same, or exhibitors using them, and we propose to institute suit against manufacturers and importers of infringing films, as well as against exchanges and exhibitors who may have such infringing films in their possession, for infringement of the Edison patents, and will push such suits to a final conclusion without regard to the expense involved. Furthermore, we stand ready at all times to protect our licensees, manufacturers, exchanges and exhibitors, from all suits or actions which may be brought against them for making, selling, renting or using licensed motion pictures