JK Rowling sues Daily Mail for libel over 'single mother' article
Harry Potter author seeks 'unspecified damages' for 'causing distress'
The Daily Mail have taken down a story from its website base on the author JK Rowling after she sued the newspaper for libel. She said that the article misrepresented her comments which she had posted on a blog 10 days before the article. The Daily Mails article was called "How JK Rowling's sob story about her past as a single mother has left churchgoers who cared for her upset and bewildered"
The article injured her reputation and caused her great distress and embarrassment, according to documents filed at the high court by Rowling's lawyers and therefore she felt the need to sue the newspaper due to her upset. Her lawyers accuse the Daily Mail as being "misleading and unfair" due to them falsely accusing Rowling of these accusations. Furthermore the Daily Mail journalist did contact Rowling's representative prior to publication but he "failed to put to her or offer any opportunity to comment on the allegations he was proposing to publish", which is "contrary to basic standards of fair and responsible journalism."
In my opinion I think it is wrong for the Daily Mail to publish a story accusing JK Rowling (or anyone in that matter) of anything without hard evidence or proof. Even then, I think they still should not be accusing people of wrong as they are ruining the reputations of people,inevitably ruining lives in some respect.
If Spotify is saving Swedish music sales, why aren't indies celebrating?
It's often hailed as a model for the future of digital music, but the reality is that many smaller labels can't survive on streaming.
"Swedish music sales up again thanks to Spotify" according to last weeks headlines. "No one can say that streams don't cannibalise sales, cause I can't imagine those streams wouldn't have generated at least a few sales [if people couldn't stream it unlimited times]," says David Elfström Lilja.
- In Sweden, there is a 30% decrease in CD sales
- And also a 22.6% decrease in digital downloads
This is the case due to the rise in the demand for music streaming services such as Spotify. However for artists this is not a good thing as the songwriter and performer mentions. He says that people can stream and therefore artist do not get paid as much. For 18,035 stream on Spotify he made £0.80 whereas for 2 downloads on iTunes he made £3. Artists aren't happy about the streaming service as they do not get the well deserved money which they should receive through these services.
It is unfair to put all the blame on Spotify as it is simply operating in an environment where music has been devalued to the point of worthlessness. Paid digital downloads barely took hold in Sweden, as by the time iTunes arrived downloaders were already using The Pirate Bay. So it's not a bad thing in Sweden as people would be downloading their music for free anyway so at least artists can get a small income through Spotify. Furthermore, it's said that there are other services such as soundcloud which allows a similar service which Spotify gives however is free and does not pay artists yet they do not get as many negative articles or criticised by everyone like Spotify do.
In my opinion, I think Spotify is a growing service which is gaining more and more attention and demand for. In terms of mainstream music, it is a good service that allows people to stream there favourite songs through. The concept of Spotify is a good one however i feel that it still has some work to do before it can be recognised as a fair source of music which pays the artists a fair income for the streams which take place.
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