UTICAJ AUTORSKOG PRAVA I PRAVA KONKURENCIJE NA ZAČETKE I USPON AMERIČKE FILMSKE INDUSTRIJE

Abstract

In the period prior to the inclusion of motion pictures in copyright law in 1912, film producers had built their businesses on copying each other's films. Film pioneers were inventors, holders of patents right on equipment who did not perceive motion pictures as art, but as a scientific experiment. With the increasing growth of new media, protection of piracy became necessary. The Sherman Act of 1890 was the first Federal antitrust act. However, at the beginning it did not outlaw monopolistic business practices of film producers, which gave a major contribution to the formation and rise of Edison's trust and later, the Independent producers as well. During the First World War feature film became a standard in the film industry. Progresive increase of costs of production determined the decline of the European film industry, which could not catch up to US dominance.