<P> Despite the rise in popularity of feature films in 1912--1913 from independent producers and foreign imports, the MPPC was very reluctant to make the changes necessary to distribute such longer films . Edison, Biograph, Essanay, and Vitagraph did not release their first features until 1914, after dozens, if not hundreds, of feature films had been released by independents . </P> <P> Patent royalties to the MPPC ended in September 1913 with the expiration of the last of the patents filed in the mid-1890s at the dawn of commercial film production and exhibition . Thus the MPPC lost the ability to control the American film industry through patent licensing, and had to rely instead on its subsidiary, the General Film Company, formed in 1910, which monopolized film distribution in USA . </P> <P> The outbreak of World War I in 1914 cut off most of the European market, which played a much more significant part of the revenue and profit for MPPC members than for the independents, which concentrated on Westerns produced for a primarily USA market . </P> <P> The end came with a federal court decision in United States v. Motion Picture Patents Co. on October 1, 1915, which ruled that the MPPC's acts went "far beyond what was necessary to protect the use of patents or the monopoly which went with them" and was therefore an illegal restraint of trade under the Sherman Antitrust Act . An appellate court dismissed the MPPC's appeal, and officially terminated the company in 1918 . </P>

Which of the following best describes the goals of the motion picture patents company (mppc)