Customs regulations as to importation of copyright articles and joint customs and postal regulations as to such importation through the mails, were issued under the law of 1909 under date of July 17, 1911, and are given in the appendix. As the copyright law forbids importation of copyright books not manufactured in this country, even with consent of the copyright proprietor, the customs regulations provide that copies imported with the copyright proprietor's assent shall be seized and destroyed by the government, while copies imported without the copyright 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 abandonment of his right to such copies. Duties collected on books thus unlawfully imported are not refunded. {Sidenote: Supersedure of previous provisions} In relation especially to questions of importation, and in general, it is of first importance to note that the present code superseded by repeal, from July 1, 1909, all conflicting provisions, which practically means all previous copyright legislation, and that except as to infringement cases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to this effect is (sec. 63): "That all laws or parts of laws in conflict with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed, but nothing in this Act shall affect causes of action for infringement of copyright heretofore committed now pending in courts of the United States, or which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." {Sidenote: Manufacturing clause affects earlier copyrights} This principle as construed by the Treasury Department (Treas. dec. no. 30316) especially affects copies whose _status_ has been changed by the new form of the 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 edition 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 bound abroad cannot be re-imported into the United States, although the sheets were manufactured here under the provisions of the law of 1891, previous to July 1, 1909. These books were accordingly denied importation and had to be returned to the country whence they were exported as bound. The opinion of Attorney-General Wickersham of November 17, 1909, on which the Treasury ruling was based, says: