In Great Britain the copyright act of 1842 (sec. 17) provided that any printed books, copyright in the United Kingdom, imported "for sale or hire" as reprinted out of the British dominions otherwise than by "the proprietor of the copyright or some person authorized by him" should be forfeited, seized and destroyed by any customs or excise officer, and the Customs act of 1843, setting forth that "great abuse had prevailed with respect to introduction for private use," prohibited importation for use as well as for sale or hire. The international copyright act of 1844 (sec. 10) excepted importations from the country "in which such books were first published," but this act did not in terms repeal the provisions of the acts of 1842 and 1843, and in the leading case of Pitt Pitts _v._ George, in 1896, the Court of Appeal, two judges to one, decided that this exception was inconsistent with the previous acts and not good law. In this case an English music publisher who had purchased British copyright in Raff's "La Fileuse," sued to restrain the importation of the original German edition. The lower court, relying on the statute of 1844, refused relief, but the Court of Appeal granted an injunction, holding, through Judge Lindley, that the complete exclusion given to the British proprietor by the act of 1842 "is most in accordance with legal principles and good sense." It was further held that where the copyright had been divided, the words "the proprietor of the copyright" indicate the owner of the English rights, and that if he had to "submit to an unlimited importation of books lawfully printed in any part of Germany itself," the British copyright "would be absolutely worthless, and the beneficial object frustrated," and protection by covenant with the original proprietor is by no means adequate. {Sidenote: Foreign reprints} The colonial copyright act of 1847, usually known as the foreign reprints act, authorized suspension by the Crown of the prohibition of importation of foreign reprints, in any colony enacting "reasonable protection to British authors"--which protection, in the twenty colonies in which the act was availed of, usually took the shape of a stated duty to be paid as royalty to the British copyright proprietor. The customs consolidation act of 1876 continued the general prohibition, on condition of notice by the proprietor of the British copyright to the Commissioners of Customs. {Sidenote: Divided market}