17 U.S.C. § 601 : US Code - Section 601: Manufacture, importation, and public distribution of certain copies

Search 17 U.S.C. § 601 : US Code - Section 601: Manufacture, importation, and public distribution of certain copies

(a) Prior to July 1, 1986, and except as provided by subsection
(b), the importation into or public distribution in the United
States of copies of a work consisting preponderantly of nondramatic
literary material that is in the English language and is protected
under this title is prohibited unless the portions consisting of
such material have been manufactured in the United States or
Canada.
(b) The provisions of subsection (a) do not apply -
(1) where, on the date when importation is sought or public
distribution in the United States is made, the author of any
substantial part of such material is neither a national nor a
domiciliary of the United States or, if such author is a national
of the United States, he or she has been domiciled outside the
United States for a continuous period of at least one year
immediately preceding that date; in the case of a work made for
hire, the exemption provided by this clause does not apply unless
a substantial part of the work was prepared for an employer or
other person who is not a national or domiciliary of the United
States or a domestic corporation or enterprise;
(2) where the United States Customs Service is presented with
an import statement issued under the seal of the Copyright
Office, in which case a total of no more than two thousand copies
of any one such work shall be allowed entry; the import statement
shall be issued upon request to the copyright owner or to a
person designated by such owner at the time of registration for
the work under section 408 or at any time thereafter;
(3) where importation is sought under the authority or for the
use, other than in schools, of the Government of the United
States or of any State or political subdivision of a State;
(4) where importation, for use and not for sale, is sought -
(A) by any person with respect to no more than one copy of
any work at any one time;
(B) by any person arriving from outside the United States,
with respect to copies forming part of such person's personal
baggage; or
(C) by an organization operated for scholarly, educational,
or religious purposes and not for private gain, with respect to
copies intended to form a part of its library;
(5) where the copies are reproduced in raised characters for
the use of the blind; or
(6) where, in addition to copies imported under clauses (3) and
(4) of this subsection, no more than two thousand copies of any
one such work, which have not been manufactured in the United
States or Canada, are publicly distributed in the United States;
or
(7) where, on the date when importation is sought or public
distribution in the United States is made -
(A) the author of any substantial part of such material is an
individual and receives compensation for the transfer or
license of the right to distribute the work in the United
States; and
(B) the first publication of the work has previously taken
place outside the United States under a transfer or license
granted by such author to a transferee or licensee who was not
a national or domiciliary of the United States or a domestic
corporation or enterprise; and
(C) there has been no publication of an authorized edition of
the work of which the copies were manufactured in the United
States; and
(D) the copies were reproduced under a transfer or license
granted by such author or by the transferee or licensee of the
right of first publication as mentioned in subclause (B), and
the transferee or the licensee of the right of reproduction was
not a national or domiciliary of the United States or a
domestic corporation or enterprise.
(c) The requirement of this section that copies be manufactured
in the United States or Canada is satisfied if -
(1) in the case where the copies are printed directly from type
that has been set, or directly from plates made from such type,
the setting of the type and the making of the plates have been
performed in the United States or Canada; or
(2) in the case where the making of plates by a lithographic or
photoengraving process is a final or intermediate step preceding
the printing of the copies, the making of the plates has been
performed in the United States or Canada; and
(3) in any case, the printing or other final process of
producing multiple copies and any binding of the copies have been
performed in the United States or Canada.
(d) Importation or public distribution of copies in violation of
this section does not invalidate protection for a work under this
title. However, in any civil action or criminal proceeding for
infringement of the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute
copies of the work, the infringer has a complete defense with
respect to all 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, if the infringer proves -
(1) that copies of the work have been imported into or publicly
distributed in the United States in violation of this section by
or with the authority of the owner of such exclusive rights; and
(2) that the infringing copies were manufactured in the United
States or Canada in accordance with the provisions of subsection
(c); and
(3) that the infringement was commenced before the effective
date of registration for an authorized edition of the work, the
copies of which have been manufactured in the United States or
Canada in accordance with the provisions of subsection (c).
(e) In any action for infringement of the exclusive rights to
reproduce and distribute copies of a work containing material
required by this section to be manufactured in the United States or
Canada, the copyright owner shall set forth in the complaint the
names of the persons or organizations who performed the processes
specified by subsection (c) with respect to that material, and the
places where those processes were performed.