The
Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC, also known as the
Edison Trust), founded in December 1908, was a
trust of all the major American film companies (
Edison,
Biograph,
Vitagraph,
Essanay,
Selig Polyscope,
Lubin Manufacturing,
Kalem Company,
Star Film Paris,
American Pathé), the leading
film distributor (
George Kleine) and the biggest supplier of raw
film stock,
Eastman Kodak. The MPPC ended the domination of foreign films on American screens, standardized the manner in which films were distributed and exhibited in America, and improved the quality of American motion pictures by internal competition. But it also discouraged its members' entry into feature
film production, and the use of outside financing, both to its members' eventual detriment.