Unintended Consequences: Thomas Edison, patents and the creation of Hollywood

Most people know Thomas Edison as a famous inventor. More specifically, people know him as the creator of the light bulb. Most people don’t know that Edison had an unintended hand in creating the Hollywood movie industry. We will explore how that came to be in this blog post.

In 1891 Thomas Edison built a Kinetoscope better known as a peephole viewer. This Device was installed in penny arcades where people could watch short, simple films. The films were only seconds long, but it was a revolutionary breakthrough for its time. In 1896 the Vitascope which was manufactured by the Edison Factory and marketed in Edison’s name but actually created by Thomas Armat was used to project motion pictures in public screenings in New York City.

Edison created a film studio which ended up making more than 1,200 films. The majority of the films were short films showing everything from acrobats to parades to fire calls. Edison’s company even created the first edition of better-known films such as Alice in Wonderland and Frankenstein. As the film business expanded, competing exhibitors routinely copied and exhibited each other films (the very first movie bootleggers). In response to these Edison started depositing the films with the U.S. copyright office. To further crackdown on the bootlegging Edison started the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC),  which was a conglomerate of nine major film studios (which was also known as the Edison Trust).  The MPPC standardized the manner in which films were exhibited and distributed in the U.S. and also improved the quality of U.S. motion pictures by internal competition. On the flipside, the MPPC also established a monopoly on all aspects of filmmaking. MPPC control of patents on motion picture cameras ensured that only MPPC studios were able to film, and the movie projector patents allowed the company to make licensing agreements with distributors and theatres, thus determining who could screen their films and where they were screened at. The patents also allowed MPPC to use federal law enforcement officials to enforce their licensing agreements and to prevent unauthorized use of their cameras, films, projectors, and other equipment. That still wasn’t enough for the MPPC however, they used hired thugs and mob connections to violently disrupt productions that weren’t licensed by them. Whoever knew Edison was so gangsta though?

Many independent filmmakers, responded to the actions of the MPPC by moving their operations to Hollywood California, where the distance from Edison and the MPPC home base of New Jersey made it more difficult for the MPPC and their..thug friends to enforce its patents. Another reason Hollywood was chosen was that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (based in San Francisco) was averse to implementing patent claims. Southern California was also selected because of its beautiful year-round weather, and diverse landscape gave the ability to offer set shootings in deserts, mountains and even jungles. One more quirk appealed to filmmakers about Hollywood; if a non-licensed studio was sued, it was only a 100 miles to “run for the border” to get out of the U.S. to Mexico where the patents were not in effect,  and therefore equipment could not be seized. The end for the MPPC came when a federal court ruled in 1915, that the MPPC’s acts went “far beyond what was necessary to protect the use of patents or the monopoly which went with them” and therefore was an illegal restraint of trade under the Sherman Anti Trust Act.  (United States v. Motion Picture Patent Co.)

Mistakes Were Made:

The MPPC overestimated the efficiency of controlling the motion picture industry through patent litigation and the exclusion of independents from licensing. The slow process of using detectives to investigate patent infringements, and of obtaining injunctions against the infringers was outpaced by the rise of new companies in diverse locations like Hollywood. Essentially the independent filmmakers outwitted the MPPC. Think of the wack a mole game you used to play at carnivals or Chuck E Cheese, where as soon as you wack one mole 2 or 3 others would pop up. MPCC and its enforcement arm could not keep pace with the rise of independent filmmakers. Also, the use of violence will eventually attract government scrutiny and will lead to the end of such practices. We see this same story over and over throughout history if you want your practice or methods to last you should restrain from using violence.

 

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