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Last.fm User Data Was Sent To RIAA By CBS

Posted by kdawson on from the doing-their-bidding dept.

suraj.sun sends in an update from TechCrunch on a story that generated a lot of controversy a few months back, "Did Last.fm Just Hand Over User Listening Data To the RIAA?" "Now we've located another source for the story, someone who's very close to Last.fm. And it turns out Last.fm was telling the truth, sorta... Last.fm didn't hand user data over to the RIAA. According to our source, it was their parent company, CBS, that did it. Here's what we believe happened: CBS requested user data from Last.fm, including user name and IP address. CBS wanted the data to comply with a RIAA request but told Last.fm the data was going to be used for 'internal use only.' It was only after the data was sent to CBS that Last.fm discovered the real reason for the request. Last.fm staffers were outraged, say our sources, but the data had already been sent to the RIAA. We believe CBS lied to us when they denied sending the data to the RIAA, and that they subsequently asked us to attribute the quote to Last.fm to make the statement defensible. Last.fm's denials were strictly speaking correct, but they ignored the underlying truth of the situation, that their parent company supplied user data to the RIAA, and that the data could possibly be used in civil and criminal actions against those users."

6 of 334 comments (clear)

  1. Breaking News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Media companies lie! Film at 11.

    1. Re:Breaking News by A+Big+Gnu+Thrush · · Score: 4, Funny

      Amen, brother. I had a party last weekend and all my friends asked if they could come. I told them to have their own party. Nothing makes a bag of chips disappear faster than a bunch of moochers.

  2. Ain't Just a River in Egypt by qpawn · · Score: 4, Funny

    I promise I didn't tell on you!... my mom did.

  3. They should come after me for the new Eminem track by eddy · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm currently listening to a future Eminem track. I got it by running bittorrent through a time-machine. The evidence is plain for all to see (or my playedlist)

    Good grief.

    --
    Belief is the currency of delusion.
  4. Re:What data? by Zordak · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes, I can just see the stunning, Law & Order-inspired jury argument. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Shorty did not illegally download U2's then-unreleased album. In fact, he had a legally-obtained copy of the Joshua Tree album, and he renamed all the tracks to the names of the tracks of the upcoming albums so he could fantasize about listening to the new album.

    I don't think I could even pull it off with a straight face.

    --

    Today's Sesame Street was brought to you by the number e.
  5. Re:The death of Last.fm? by JackieBrown · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do you have some sort of list of last.fm users I could look over to confirm your statement?

    No but the RIAA could help you with that one.