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 (1912-1913)

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:
1912-1913
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 7
Leaf #:
000312
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 27, 2024
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294 Motion Picture Patents Co. and Am. Mut. & Bio. Co. (5) that the lessee shall return to the Licensee from whom such positive motion picture has been leased (without any payment therefor except the transportation charges incident to the return of the same) on the first day of every month, beginning with February 1st, 1909, an amount of positive motion pictures (on film of a. greater width than approximately one (1) inch in running feet (not leased by the Licensee over twelve months before) and of the make of the Licensee to whom it is returned, equal to the amount that was so leased during the seventh month preceding the date of each such return, with the exception, however, that where any such positive motion pictures are destroyed by fire or lost in transportation, and proof satisfactory to the Licensee is furnished as to such destruction or loss, the amount so destroyed or lost shall be deducted from the amount to be returned, as aforesaid, and (6) that the violation of any of the foregoing conditions, including the terms and conditions of the agreement referred to in condition 3, entitles the lessor to immediate possession of such motion picture without liability for any price which the lessee Or the person in whose possession it is found, may have paid therefor. It is further mutually covenanted and agreed by and between the Licensor and Licensee that the sub-leasing price for sub-leasing of positive motion pictures, on film of a greater width than approximately one (1) inch, shall be fixed (and which may be changed in the same manner during the continuance of this agreement, as may also the 5th condition before recited in this paragraph) by a majority vote of the Licensee and the several additional licensees hereinafter provided for, or such of them as may at the time be licensees, on the basis of one vote for each thousand running feet of new subjects, on film of a greater width than approximately one (1) inch, offered for lease or sale in the "territory aforesaid" 'by each licensee during the year preceding the taking of such vote. The Licensee further covenants and agrees that in the " lease territory aforesaid" it will not discriminate in favor of any lessee, or place upon any motion pictures any restrictions, other than those specified in this paragraph and Paragraph 7, unless authorized by a majority vote of the Licensee and the several additional licensees hereinafter provided for, or such of (hem as may at the time be licensees.