294 COPYRIGHT
knowledge infringes copyright." Importation is prohibited of copies made out of the United King- dom, which if made therein would infringe copyright and as to which the owner of the copyright gives written notice to the Commissioners of Customs in accordance with regulations by the Commissioners, which regulations may apply to all works or to differ- ent classes. The Isle of Man is specifically excepted from the United Kingdom in respect to this section. But the section is made applicable with the neces- sary modifications to any included British possession in respect to copies made out of that possession. The text of the new measure, retaining the phrase "for sale or hire" from the act of 1842 and reaffirming the customs act of 1876, which makes no such exception, continues an unfortunate ambiguity as to the impor- tation of copies for private use, but precedent and court decisions favor the complete control of the market by the copyright proprietor through the com- plete exclusion of foreign copies. Canadian Canada had, in an act of 1850, availed itself of the
practice foreign reprints act by imposing a duty "not exceed- ing 20 per cent" on foreign reprints of English works, and under this act the Dominion later became "flooded" with cheap American reprints, while the royalty to British authors, fixed at 123^ per cent, was so inadequately collected that only £1084 was paid in the ten years ending 1876. Canada accordingly passed its copyright act of 1875, providing for the re- printing of English copyright works in Canada under Canadian copyright and prohibiting importation of such works except in the original edition from the United Kingdom, and this act, although opposed as an invasion of the exclusive control of their works by British authors, was accepted by the British Par- liament in the Canada copyright act of the same year,
