Page:Copyright, Its History And Its Law (1912).djvu/315

 IMPORTATION 283

vide that copies imported with the copyright pro- prietor's assent shall be seized and destroyed by the government, while copies imported without the copy- right proprietor's consent, being forfeited under the law to such proprietor, must be held by the customs authorities pending suit for forfeiture by the copyright owner or his abandonnient of his right to such copies. Duties collected on books thus unlawfully imported are not refunded.

In relation especially to questions of importation, Supersedure and in general, it is of first importance to note that °* previous, the present code superseded by repeal, from July i, 1909, all conflicting provisions, which practically means all previous copyright legislation, and that ex- cept as to infringement cases actionable at that date, the present code is the only copyright law.

The provision to this effect is (sec. 63): "That all laws or parts of laws in conflict with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed, but nothing in this Act shall affect causes of action for infringement of copyright heretofore committed now pending in courts of the United States, or which may hereafter be instituted ; but such causes shall be prosecuted to a conclusion in the manner heretofore provided by law."

This principle as construed by the Treasury Depart- Manufactur- ment (Treas. dec. no. 30316) especially affects copies jig clause af- whose status has been changed by the new form of the copyrights manufacturing proviso (sec. 15). A modification adds the condition that books must be printed from plates made from type set within the United States and printed and bound in this country. The Treasury Department has held in the case of an American edi- tion of the "Key of Heaven" copyrighted under the law of 1891, by Benziger Brothers, of which sheets were sent abroad for binding, that the edition as