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39-516: In February 1958, nine years after the ruling of the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. case in 1948, Music Corporation of America (MCA) approached Paramount to acquire the television distribution rights to 750 sound feature films released prior to December 1, 1949 for $ 10 million, with payment to be spread over a period of several years. Paramount saw this as a bargain since the studio saw very little value in its library of old films at

78-677: A 2019 review of its ongoing decrees, the Department of Justice issued a two-year sunsetting notice for the Paramount Decree in August 2020, believing the antitrust restriction was no longer necessary as the old model could never be recreated in contemporary settings. The legal issues originated in the silent era, when the Federal Trade Commission began investigating film companies for potential violations under

117-467: A division of Universal Television with Universal holding theatrical and home video distribution rights, while NBCUniversal Syndication Studios holding television distribution rights. Some of EMKA's films were remade by Universal in later years such as Meet Joe Black , a remake of Death Takes a Holiday , and a few other films became adapted by Revue Studios as television series. This article about an American film distributor or production company

156-638: A mix of admiralty and bankruptcy cases. The primary responsibility for hearing bankruptcy cases has since been transferred to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York , with the District Court only reviewing cases already decided by a bankruptcy judge. Since its creation, the Southern District of New York has had over 150 judges, more than any other District. Twenty-one judges from

195-499: A seat on the court. Chief judges have administrative responsibilities with respect to their district court. Unlike the Supreme Court, where one justice is specifically nominated to be chief, the office of chief judge rotates among the district court judges. To be chief, a judge must have been in active service on the court for at least one year, be under the age of 65, and have not previously served as chief judge. A vacancy

234-719: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. , 334 U.S. 131 (1948) (also known as the Hollywood Antitrust Case of 1948 , the Paramount Case , or the Paramount Decision ), was a landmark United States Supreme Court antitrust case that decided the fate of film studios owning their own theatres and holding exclusivity rights on which theatres would show their movies. It would also change

273-673: The Judiciary Act of 1789 , 1 Stat. 73, on September 24, 1789. It first sat at the old Merchants Exchange on Broad Street in November 1789, the first federal court to do so. The Act of April 9, 1814, 3 Stat. 120, divided the District of New York into Northern and Southern Districts. The subdivision of the district was reportedly instigated by Matthias B. Tallmadge , out of antipathy for fellow district judge William P. Van Ness . These Districts were later further subdivided with

312-611: The Paramount Decree , a standard held by the United States Department of Justice that prevented film production companies from owning exhibition companies. The case is important both in American antitrust law and film history . In the former, it remains a landmark decision in vertical integration cases; in the latter, it is responsible for putting an end to the old Hollywood studio system . As part of

351-480: The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The major film studios owned the theaters where their motion pictures were shown, either in partnerships or outright. Thus specific theater chains showed only the films produced by the studio that owned them. The studios created the films, had the writers, directors, producers and actors on staff (under contract), owned the film processing and laboratories, created

390-491: The U.S. attorneys for the district have been prominent American legal and political figures, such as Elihu Root , Henry L. Stimson , Robert Morgenthau , Rudy Giuliani , James Comey , Michael J. Garcia , and Preet Bharara . The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York encompasses the counties of New York, Bronx, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Dutchess, and Sullivan and draws jurors from those counties. The Court also shares jurisdiction over

429-744: The United States Attorney is Damian Williams . The court sits in the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse and Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse , both in Manhattan , and in the Charles L. Brieant Jr. Federal Building and Courthouse in White Plains . The United States District Court for the District of New York was one of the original 13 courts established by

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468-573: The United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division began a review of antitrust decrees that did not have expiration dates. In 2019, the DOJ sought to terminate the Paramount Decrees, which would include a two-year sunset period as to the practices of block booking and circuit dealing to allow theater chains to adjust. The Department stated it was "unlikely that the remaining defendants can reinstate their cartel" as reasoning for terminating

507-490: The 148-theater Schine. The federal government's case was initially settled in 1940 in the District Court for the Southern District of New York with a consent decree , which allowed the government to resume prosecution if studios were noncompliant by November, 1943. Among other requirements, the District Court-imposed consent decree included the following conditions: The studios did not fully comply with

546-487: The Paramount Decrees. Eventually, in February 1985, the Department of Justice announced that, although it was not formally terminating the Paramount Decrees, it would no longer pursue enforcement of the decrees in cases where doing so was “in the public interest.” According to media historian Jennifer Holt, "Effectively, this statement dissolved the authority of the decrees, if not legally then practically." In April 2018,

585-625: The Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations , S.D.N.Y. ) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of the State of New York . Two of these are in New York City : New York (Manhattan) and Bronx ; six are in the Hudson Valley : Westchester , Putnam , Rockland , Orange , Dutchess , and Sullivan . Appeals from

624-888: The Southern District of New York are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act , which are appealed to the Federal Circuit ). Because it covers Manhattan , the Southern District of New York has long been one of the most active and influential federal trial courts in the United States. It often has jurisdiction over America's largest financial institutions and prosecution of white-collar crime and other federal crimes. Because of its age, being

663-676: The Southern District of New York have been elevated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit — Samuel Blatchford , Charles Merrill Hough , Learned Hand , Julius Marshuetz Mayer , Augustus Noble Hand , Martin Thomas Manton , Robert P. Patterson , Harold Medina , Irving Kaufman , Wilfred Feinberg , Walter R. Mansfield , Murray Gurfein , Lawrence W. Pierce , Pierre N. Leval , John M. Walker Jr. , Sonia Sotomayor , Denny Chin , Barrington Daniels Parker Jr. , Gerard E. Lynch , Richard J. Sullivan , and Alison Nathan . Blatchford and Sotomayor, after being elevated from

702-593: The Southern District of New York to serve as Circuit Judges for the Second Circuit, were later elevated to the Supreme Court of the United States . The longest serving judge, David Norton Edelstein , served as an active judge for 43 years to the day, and in senior status for an additional six years. Judges of the court have gone on to other high governmental positions. Robert P. Patterson served as Under Secretary of War under President Franklin Roosevelt and

741-585: The Unity proposal and instead, owing to noncompliance with the District Court's binding consent decree, resumed prosecution via the 1943 lawsuit. The 1943 case went to trial on October 8, 1945, one month and six days after the end of World War II . The District Court ruled in favor of the studios, and the government immediately appealed to the Supreme Court. The case reached the United States Supreme Court in 1948; their verdict went against

780-587: The consent decree. In 1942, they instead, with Allied Theatre Owners , proposed an alternate "Unity Plan". Under the Plan, larger blocks of theatres were blocked with the caveat of allowing theaters to reject films. Consequently, the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers (SIMPP) came into existence and thence filed a lawsuit against Paramount Detroit Theaters, representing the first major lawsuit of producers against exhibitors. The government declined to pursue

819-654: The creation of the Eastern District on February 25, 1865 by 13 Stat. 438, and the Western District on May 12, 1900, by 31 Stat. 175. Public Law 95-408 (enacted October 2, 1978) transferred Columbia, Greene, and Ulster counties from the Southern to the Northern district. For the first hundred years of its existence, the case load of the district was dominated first by admiralty cases, and then by

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858-509: The decrees. The DOJ formally filed its motion for a court order to terminate the decrees on November 22, 2019. The move was opposed by independent movie theater owners, including the Independent Cinema Alliance, and independent filmmakers. The court granted the DOJ's motion to lift the decrees on August 7, 2020, starting a two-year sunset termination period of the decrees. United States District Court for

897-504: The government's favor, affirming much of the consent decree (Justice Robert H. Jackson took no part in the proceedings). William O. Douglas delivered the Court's opinion, with Felix Frankfurter dissenting in part, arguing the Court should have left all of the decree intact except its arbitration provisions. Douglas's opinion reiterated the facts and history of the case and reviewed the Supreme Court's opinion, agreeing that its conclusion

936-523: The major movie studios being sued in 1938 by the U.S. Department of Justice . As the largest studio, Paramount Pictures was the primary defendant, but all of the other Big Five ( Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , Warner Bros. , 20th Century Fox , and RKO Pictures ) and Little Three ( Universal Pictures , Columbia Pictures , and United Artists ) were named, and additional defendants included numerous subsidiaries and executives from each company. Separate cases were also filed against large independent chains, including

975-455: The movie studios, forcing all of them to divest themselves of their movie theater chains. This, coupled with the advent of television and the attendance drop in movie ticket sales, brought about a severe slump in the movie business. The Paramount decision is a bedrock of corporate antitrust law and as such is cited in most cases where issues of vertical integration play a prominent role in restricting fair trade. The Supreme Court ruled 7–1 in

1014-407: The oldest federal court in the history of the United States, great influence, described as "the preeminent trial court in the nation", and its strong independence, it is colloquially called the "Mother Court", or the "Sovereign District of New York." The district itself has had several prominent judges on its bench, including Learned Hand , Michael Mukasey , and Sonia Sotomayor , and many of

1053-449: The patent statutes, makes reward to the owner a secondary consideration". The prohibitions on discrimination he let stand entirely. Frankfurter took exception to the extent to which his colleagues had agreed with the studios that the District Court had not adequately explored the underlying facts in affirming the consent decree. He pointed to then-contemporary Court decision, International Salt Co. v. United States that lower courts are

1092-407: The prints and distributed them through the theaters that they owned: In other words, the studios were vertically integrated , creating a de facto oligopoly . By 1945, the studios owned either partially or outright 17% of the theaters in the country, accounting for 45% of the film-rental revenue. Ultimately, this issue of the studios' then-alleged (and later upheld) illegal trade practices led to all

1131-427: The proper place for such findings of fact, to be deferred to by higher courts. Also, he reminded the (Supreme) Court that the District Court had spent fifteen months considering the case and reviewed almost 4,000 pages of documentary evidence: "I cannot bring myself to conclude that the product of such a painstaking process of adjudication as to a decree appropriate for such a complicated situation as this record discloses

1170-483: The theater chain ( United Paramount Theaters ), which merged in 1953 with the American Broadcasting Company . Consequences of the decision include: In 1980, the United States Department of Justice under President Ronald Reagan began a review of all consent decrees that were more than 10 years old. In 1983, the Department of Justice announced that it was in the "final stages" of reviewing

1209-710: The time. To address any antitrust concerns, MCA set up EMKA, Ltd. as a dummy corporation to sell these films to television. EMKA's Paramount library includes the first five Marx Brothers films (although it took until 1974 for rights issues to be cleared for Animal Crackers before it could legally be shown again), the first four Bob Hope – Bing Crosby Road to... pictures, and other classics such as Trouble in Paradise , Shanghai Express , She Done Him Wrong , Sullivan's Travels , The Palm Beach Story , For Whom The Bell Tolls , Double Indemnity , Going My Way , The Lost Weekend and The Heiress . Over

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1248-624: The waters of the counties of Kings, Nassau, Queens, Richmond, and Suffolk with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York . The Court hears cases in Manhattan, White Plains, and Poughkeepsie, New York. The United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York represents the United States in civil and criminal litigation in the Court. As of October 10, 2021

1287-444: The way Hollywood movies were produced, distributed , and exhibited. It also opened the door for more foreign and independent films to be shown in U.S. theaters. The Supreme Court affirmed the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York 's ruling that the existing distribution scheme was in violation of United States antitrust law , which prohibits certain exclusive dealing arrangements. The decision created

1326-463: The years, MCA took in more than a billion dollars in rentals of these supposedly "worthless" films. In 1962, MCA purchased the US branch of Decca Records , then the parent company of Universal Studios , and subsequently divested MCA of the talent agency business. MCA was eventually acquired by Japan-based Matsushita Electric in 1990 and then by Seagram in 1995, renamed as Universal Studios in 1996 which

1365-513: Was "incontestable". He considered five different trade practices addressed by the consent decree: Douglas let stand the Court's sevenfold test for when a clearance agreement could be considered a restraint of trade, as he agreed they had a legitimate purpose. Pooling agreements and joint ownership, he agreed, were "bald efforts to substitute monopoly for competition ... Clearer restraints of trade are difficult to imagine." He allowed, however, that courts could consider how an interest in an exhibitor

1404-475: Was Secretary of War under President Harry S. Truman . Louis Freeh served as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from September 1993 to June 2001. Michael Mukasey served as the 81st United States Attorney General under President George W. Bush . As of November 6, 2024 : On November 8, 2024, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Tali Farhadian Weinstein to

1443-400: Was acquired; thus, he remanded some other issues back to the District Court for further inquiry and resolution. He set aside the lower court's findings on franchises so that they might be reconsidered from the perspective of allowing competitive bidding. On the block booking question, he rejected the studios' argument that it was necessary to profit from their copyrights: "The copyright law, like

1482-470: Was an abuse of discretion." He would have modified the District Court decision only to permit the use of arbitration to resolve disputes. The court orders forcing the separation of motion picture production and exhibition companies are commonly referred to as the Paramount Decrees . Paramount Pictures Inc. was forced to split into two companies: the film company Paramount Pictures Corp. and

1521-472: Was sold to Vivendi in 2000. In 1997, Universal Television was sold to USA Networks , 5 years later on May 28, 2002, its entertainment assets were sold to Vivendi Universal. In 2004, Vivendi, merged its entertainment division with General Electric 's NBC to form NBC Universal . In 2011, Comcast bought 51% of NBC Universal from Vivendi and renamed it NBCUniversal, and in 2013, Comcast bought remaining 49% of NBCUniversal from GE. EMKA continues to exist as

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