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Motion Picture Patents Company
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MPPC can also stand for Microsoft Point-to-Point Compression.
MPPC stands for Motion Picture Patents Company, also known as the Edison Trust, also known as the First Oligopoly, founded in December 1908.
The MPPC was a trust of all the major film companies (
Edison,
Biograph,
Vitagraph,
Essanay,
Selig,
Lubin,
Kalem,
American Star,
American Pathé), the leading distributor (
George Kleine) and the biggest supplier of raw film,
Eastman Kodak.
At the time of the formation of the MPPC, Thomas Edison owned most of the major patents relating to motion pictures, especially that for raw film. The MPPC vigorously enforced its patents, constantly bringing suits and receiving injunctions against independent filmmakers. Many filmmakers responded by moving their operations to Hollywood, whose distance from Edison's home base of New Jersey made it more difficult for the MPPC to enforce its patents. It's a popular myth that the proximity of Southern California to Mexico made it convenient for Hollywood filmmakers to flee to in order to avoid the MPPC. Southern California was also chosen because of its beautiful year-round weather and varied countryside, which could stand in for deserts, jungles and great mountains.
The reasons for its decline are manifold. The most important ones are the misjudgement of consumer interest and the quick rise of the so-called
Independents, who later became the
Second Oligopoly. There were also decisions of the
Supreme Court of the United States, in particular one in
1912, which cancelled the patent on raw film, and a second in 1915, which cancelled all MPPC patents. A later suit under the
Sherman Antitrust Act in 1917 ended the oligopoly, but by then, the MPPC was already defeated.
See also
