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 #:
000147
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:
September 21, 2023
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James R. Clark, Direct Examination. 259" and unlicensed exchanges with respect to the price of motion picture service? A. I believe so. Q. When numerous copies of a motion picture are in use in a given neighborhood does it lose value the more rapidly on that account? A. Yes, sir. Q. What is the reason for that? A. Why, it is shown in so many more places in a much shorter time. Q. Would you say that if five copies of a given motion picture were out in a given neighborhood, that the feasibility of exhibiting the subject would decrease more rapidly than if one copy were out? A. Yes, sir. Q. Would you say that as the number of people who have seen a motion picture increases in a given territory, the value of the picture increases or diminishes it? A. Diminishes. Q. Have you ever had any experience of replacing a worn, or destroyed copy of a motion picture, by a copy which has never been in actual physical use? A. Has never been? Q. Yes, that one? A. Yes, sir. Q. Is the price of the copy which has never been in actual physical use determined by the release date? A. Yes, sir. Q. Mr. Clark, what do you mean by a "reel" in the motion picture art? A. Well, as it is used, approximately, a thousand feet of film. They do not all run a thousand feet, though. Q. Do they vary in length? A. Yes, sir. Q. Are some of them as low as 800 or 900 feet? A. Yes, sir. Q. And others as high as a thousand feet, or a thousand and fifty feet, or eleven hundred, and twelve hundred and twelve hundred and fifty feet? A. Well, not very many. Some run, or quite a number run, as high as eleven hundred feet, but very few at twelve hundred feet. Q. Does the exhibitor know any tiling about the different lengths of the films on these reels? A. Well, he can tell by looking at the reel whether it is a short one, or a long one. Q. Does that fact make any difference in the price he pays? A. No. Q. Does that fact make any difference in the price which