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Last.fm Strongly Denies Sharing Data With RIAA

Posted by kdawson on from the he-said-she-said dept.

bonch writes "Last.fm and CBS vehemently deny sharing any user data with the RIAA, contrary to previous reports. One anonymous party calls it 'irresponsible journalism,' and Last.fm goes so far as to suggest it is a target of slander. Carla Duckworth of the RIAA confirmed, 'We've made no such request for this information.'"

10 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. RIAA also says by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Thanks for the good idea!"

    1. Re:RIAA also says by sopssa · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'm actually siding with Last.FM here, just for the reason that TechCrunch deleted mine and many others comments if it was about *anything* against their view or if you defended last.fm. The most recent article about last.fm downtime was also hilarious try to make bad comments about them (and see the writers comments in that article :). Now, I do not know anything about which side is valid. But by far last.fm has answered questions and what they have been accused of, while TechCrunch keeps removing comments that dont side with them. For me that says something.

  2. Smells fishy by Tanktalus · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wasn't so sure before, but when the RIAA denies even making the request, well, now I'm paranoid. Methinks [they] doth protest too much.

  3. So, did they get the data? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The RIAA says that they didn't request the data, but note that there is no denial that they received it.

    1. Re:So, did they get the data? by putch · · Score: 5, Insightful

      yeah also note that cbs/last.fm only deny handing over "user info" which is seems like a carefully constructed statement. how exactly do they define "user info?" it implies that they have handed over some info.

      --
      just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand!
  4. Re:Irresponsible Journalism?? by subsystem · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's an article with some actual fact checking: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/may/28/not-safe-for-work-last-fm (sfw). I didn't like the fact that comments on TechCrunch that offered any opposing viewpoints were promptly deleted.

  5. Re:From the Article: by InMSWeAntitrust · · Score: 5, Funny

    I read slashdot to stay informed of current events in the tech world, and I want the articles to which it links to have factual accuracy and to be researched. This accusation sounds a lot like the wrong person twittered the right thing and now the people involved are knocking some sense into us.

  6. Re:Uhm... by machine321 · · Score: 5, Funny

    *ducks*

  7. Hmmm, Credibility.... by Bob9113 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So, who do I trust more:

    1. The RIAA PR person, the CBS PR person, and the Last.fm PR person.
    -- or --
    2. A completely unverifiable source who may have an axe to grind or other nefarious motive for completely fabricating the story.

    Frankly, it's a tough call.

    --
    Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
  8. TechCrunch and Pandora by meehawl · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Pandora's main competition for mindshare is Last.FM. There's also a bit of a US/EU rivalry, with Pandora so strongly identified with the US and, with the Valley in particular, while Last.FM came out of a Euro milieu. I think I've noticed a very pro-Pandora coverage pattern at TechCrunch. Lots of the "Web 2 - Me Too" AdSense spam sites, sorry, gadget/tech blogs, take cues from TechCrunch, and among the iPhone-toting, US-centric crowd, Pandora is a darling.

    Before I'd believe anything TechCrunch said about Last.FM, I'd want to know more about the personal and financial connections between the people running TechCrunch and the people running Pandora.

    Personally, I've tried Pandora every years and it fails, epically, to even know about many of the artists I am interested in hearing. Plus, Pandora's Flash interface is just aggravating, user-hostile, and screams hipster-designer-marketroid-douchbags-in-control.

    --

    Da Blog