Page:H.R. Rep. No. 94-1476 (1976) Page 169.djvu

 bill does away with the special “ad interim” time limits and registration requirements of the present law and, even if copies are imported or distributed in violation of the section, there would be no effect on the copyright owner’s right to make and distribute phonorecords of the work, to make derivative works including dramatizations and motion pictures, and to perform or display the work publicly. Even the rights to reproduce and distribute copies are not lost in cases of violation, although they are limited as against certain infringers.

provides a complete defense in any civil action or criminal proceeding for infringement of the exclusive rights of reproduction or distribution of copies where, under certain circumstances, the defendant proves violation of the manufacturnig requirements. The defense is limited to infringement of the “nondramatic literary material comprised in the work and any other parts of the work in which the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute copies are owned by the same person who owns such exclusive rights in the nondramatic literary material.” This means, for example, that the of copyright in photographs or illustrations published in a book copyrighted by someone else who would not be deprived of rights against an infringer who proves that there had been a violation of section 601.

Section 601(d) places the full burden for proving violation on the infringer. The infringer’s defense must be based on proof that: (1) copies in violation of section 601 have been imported or publicly distributed in the United States “by or with the authority” of the copyright owner; and (2) that the infringing copies complied with the manufacturing requirements; and (3) that the infringement began before an authorized edition complying with the requirements had been registered. The third of these clauses of subsection (d) means, in effect, that a copyright owner can reinstate full exclusive rights by manufacturing an edition in the United States and making registration for it.

Subsection (e) requires the plaintiff in any infringement action involving publishing rights in material subject to the manufacturing clause to identify the manufacturers of the copies in his complaint. Correspondingly, section 409 would require the manufacturers to be identified in applications for registration covering published works subject to the requirements of section 601.

Scope of the section

Section 602, which has nothing to do with the manufacturing requirements of section 601, deals with two separate situations: importation of “piratical” (that is, copies or phonorecords made without any authorization of the copyright owner), and unauthorized importation of copies or phonorecords that wree lawfully made. The general approach of section 602 is to make unauthorized importation an act of infringement in both cases, but to permit the United States Customs Service to prohibit importation only of “piratical” articles.

Section 602(a) first states the general rule that unauthorized importation is an infringement merely if the copies or phonorecords “have been acquired outside the United States”, but then enumerates three specific exceptions: (1) importation under the authority or for
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