1899-1910s
Frank Seaman had worked for Emile Berliner's Berliner Gramophone. Seaman decided to start his own company to produce disc records and disc phonographs. Seaman's "Zon-O-Phone" records design and technology were stolen from Berliner, and the machines similarly copied from the products of Eldridge R. Johnson's Consolidated Talking Machine Company. Seaman then sued Berliner and Johnson for violating 'his' technology. With the help of lawyer Phillip Mauro, Seaman arranged for an alliance with Columbia Records (then manufacturing only cylinder records and machines), arguing that the patents held by Columbia concerning cylinders applied to any type of recording where a stylus vibrated in a groove, and that Zon-O-Phone would pay royalties if Columbia helped him drive Berliner out of business. In 1900 Seaman and Mauro succeeded in getting a judge to file an injunction that Berliner and Johnson stop making their products.
Johnson and Berliner counter-sued, and the following year emerged victorious in court—prompting the name of their new combined company, The Victor.
Further legal actions dragged on until 1903, when all of the United States and Latin American assets of Zon-O-Phone were turned over to Victor, and the Europe and British Commonwealth assets to the Gramophone & Typewriter Company (which would later become the Gramophone Company and launch the His Master's Voice record label).
The Victor Talking Machine continued use of the "Zonophone" name to market cheaper records which for whatever reason were not of the technical standard of the Victor label until retiring the label in the US in 1912. In the United Kingdom, Australia and other British colonies Zonophone was the cheaper label for Gramophone Company issues. Issue under the cheaper label appears to have been an arbitrary choice. For example from the same session in 1905 the matrices of the famed Music Hall star Victoria Monks were either issued on full priced Gramophone Company recordings or the much cheaper Zonophone label -with no technical differences (or indeed popularity of song). In 1911 single sided Zonophones were withdrawn - existing titles were doubled under the Zonophone Twin label. This made the price difference between the still single sided Gramophone Company issues and the Zonophones even greater. Ten inch Zonophone Twins sold as 2s.6d. (£0.125) whilst single sided Gramo. issues (black label) sold at 4s.6d. (£0.225). In 1913 the Gramophone Company issued an even cheaper label ("Cinch") which sold at 1s.1d. (£0.06) whilst strangely keeping many of the titles for sale under the Zonophone label at 2s.6d.
At least some Zonophone recordings were marked with early End User License Agreements (EULAs), as demonstrated by the sample label (see image). The label EULA reads, "This patented record is licensed for sale and use only when sold at retail at a price not less than the price marked upon this record, and only for the purpose of producing sound directly from this record, and for no other purpose. The patents covering this record, and under which it is made, among others, are U.S. patents NO 534,543, dated Feb. 19, 1895, NO 548,623 dated Oct 29, 1895 ... This license is valid only so long as this label remains on this record, unaltered and undefaced. A purchase is an acceptance of these terms. Universal Talking Machine MFG CO, May 1, 1911."
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