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EN BANC

G.R. No. L-30774 January 29, 1929

PHILIPPINE EDUCATION COMPANY, INC., Plaintiff-Appellee, vs. VICENTE SOTTO and V. R. ALINDADA defendants.
V. R. ALINDADA, Appellant.

Vicente Sotto for appellant.
Gibbs, and McDonough and Roman Ozaeta for appellee.

STATEMENTchanrobles virtual law library

Plaintiff alleges that it is a domestic corporation, with its principal office in the City of Manila, of which the defendants are also residents and of legal age; that it is the proprietor and publisher of the monthly magazine Philippine Education Magazine, which is published in the City of Manila and of general circulation in the Philippine Islands; that the defendant, Vicente Sotto, is the proprietor and publisher, and the defendant, V. R. Alindada, is the editor of a weekly newspaper known as The Independent, which is also published in the City of Manila and also of such general circulation; that in December, 1927, plaintiff contracted with Austin Craig for the preparation and publication of an original article to be written by him concerning Mrs. Jose Rizal, to be published exclusively in the Philippine Education Magazine, and that by virtue thereof, the said Craig prepared and wrote an original article entitled "The True Story of Mrs. Rizal," and delivered it to the plaintiff which paid him for it, and thereby became the exclusive owner of the article; that it printed and published the article in its issue of December, 1927, and that it was on the market for sale in the early part of that month; that as such owner the plaintiff has the exclusive right to print and publish the article in its magazine, and that it gave notice in that issue "that all rights thereto were reserved;" that the defendants unlawfully and without the knowledge or consent of the plaintiff appropriated, copied and reproduced and published the article in the weekly issues of The Independent of December 24th and December 31, 1927, without citing the source of its defendants; that upon such discovery, the plaintiff to the fact that the article in question was published "without permission or even the courtesy of an ordinary credit line," and requested that in his next issue that "you state in some prominent place that this article was taken from our magazine, and I request further that you refrain from similar thefts in the future," Also calling his attention to the fact that we have stated plainly "on the title page of our magazine that we reserve all rights, and you infringe on them at your peril." In answer to that latter, the editor protested against the use of the word "thefts," and advised the plaintiff in substance that it had not registered such right under the