ABSTRACT
Although the recording industry was born in the late nineteenth century, two major players dominated the two most common record formats: Edison, who released his recordings first on cylinders and then on verticalcut discs, and Victor, who owned the rights to lateral cut discs, which by the 1910s had become the most popular format. Anyone who wanted to release records that would play on Victor’s proprietary machines (known as Victrolas) had to pay the company a licensing fee. In 1919 the small independent label Gennett decided to challenge Victor’s monopoly, and refused to pay the fee. In a foreshadowing of today’s litigious climate, Gennet was sued by Victor. However, Gennett’s lawyers discovered an earlier copyright that predated Victor’s ownership claim, and won the lawsuit. From that point forward, the recording industry grew by leaps and bounds, unfettered by Victor’s stranglehold on the technology.
