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 XVI

IMPORTATION OF COPYRIGHTED WORKS

Copyright and importa- tion

Fundamen- tal right of exclusion ,

The right to import a copyrighted book and, con- versely, the right to exclude importation are rights incident to the general "exclusive right" of an author or copyright proprietor. This is recognized, in terms or inferentially, in the copyright law of most coun- tries ; and the American copyright code is exceptional and almost without precedent, save that of the pre- ceding American law of 1891, in specifically permit- ting the importation of copyrighted books in stated cases, without the consent or authority of the copy- right proprietor.

As Senator O. H. Piatt in the copyright debate of 1 89 1 said: "The fundamental idea of a copyright is the exclusive right to vend, and the prohibition against importation from a foreign nation is necessary to the enjoyment of that right. The privilege of con- trolling the market is indeed essential." The copy- right laws of foreign countries, and our own copyright legislation previous to 1 891, carefully safeguard this right. When an author cannot assure to an American publisher the American market he cannot get from that publisher the price he would otherwise secure. In the " international copyright amendment " of 1891, Congress accompanied the manufacturing clause, which prohibited the importation of foreign copies even with the consent of the author, by a proviso permitting certain importations even without the consent of the author — on the homoeopathic princi- ple of off-setting one restriction upon authors' rights by another restriction upon authors' rights.