CBS refutes Last.fm / RIAA data-sharing accusations
This week has seen a revival in the spat between TechCrunch and Last.fm, over the former’s allegations that the latter shared user data with the RIAA following the leak of U2’s recent album. Now Last.fm’s parent company CBS has chimed in, once more slapping down the accusations.
“Both CBS and the RIAA have already stated quite clearly, for the record, that absolutely no individual user or listener information was supplied to the RIAA by Last.fm or any division of CBS Corporation in the past, nor do we plan to do so in the future,” says its statement.
“The story posted by the website was based on an unnamed tipster. No inquiry was made to CBS or Last.fm about the veracity of the anonymous source. Those who consult such blogs should be aware of the standard by which such postings are sourced and published.”
With TechCrunch having published a leaked email that it claims proves CBS did share data with the RIAA, this one could run and run.
Tags: CBS, last.fm, RIAA, techcrunch
May 27th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
You missed one thing.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/23/another-blanket-denial-by-lastfm/comment-page-2/#comment-2764577
Arrington (author of the TechCrunch “article”) himself says:
“I’m not really sure what data was passed to CBS, or even if it was definitely handed off to a label or the RIAA.”
“There is a story here. Perhaps the story is that a CBS employee wanted to do a hit job on Last.fm, and miscommunication between the companies led Last.fmers to think there was truth to it after the original post.”
The person who fabricated this whole thing admitted himself that he doesn’t really know anything, or even if there’s a story. He posted one as fact, but doesn’t actually know.
So you’ve got all 3 involved parties (last.fm, CBS, and even the RIAA) denying any such transfer occured, and the source of the allegations saying he himself has no clue. That leaves… ? Think long and hard about that.
May 29th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
[...] Source: http://musically.com/blog/2009/05/27/cbs-refutes-lastfm-riaa-data-sharing-accusations/ [...]
June 1st, 2009 at 4:47 am
[...] About the Last.fm vs TechCrunch Saga [...]