Page:Copyright, Its History And Its Law (1912).djvu/323

 IMPORTATION 291

prescribed and provided by the Treasury Depart- ment.

The question whether copyrighted works could Copyrights be imported because they were included under the "'"* ^^ free list of the tariff came before the Treasury De- '^* '^ partment in 1901. With respect to copyrighted music, the Attorney-General considered the two questions whether the copyright law prohibits the importation of copyright music and whether the free list in the tariff constitutes an exception to the copy- right law. He held as to the latter that the tariff is to prescribe certain duties on importations ; it is not designed to authorize importation. It simply provides when and under what circumstances certain articles are exempt from duty. Accordingly copy- righted musical compositions are not taken out of the effect of the copyright law. The Secretary of the Treasury ruled (Treas. dec. no. 23225), in accord- ance with this advice, that copyrighted music was prohibited importation, — but this refers to importa- tion without consent of the copyright proprietor.

Although not of copyright bearing, the significance The duty on in respect to importations of books of the newly books added phrase "wholly or in chief value of paper" in the tariff act of 1909, which otherwise continued the 25 per cent duty on books, may here be mentioned, as of importance to importers. It was included in the Payne tariff, apparently at the instance of the book- binding interests, and was at first construed by the local customs authorities at New York to make books bound in leather subject to the 40 per cent duty on leather, and books bound in silk subject to the 50 per cent duty on silk, as the component parts of chief value. The Secretary of the Treasury has, however, overruled this view and admitted books thus bound under the 25 per cent duty on the ground that "the