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42 Comments
- gcnaddict, on 06/02/2009, -5/+41Then sue TechCrunch. If Last.fm feels it's been defamed and has evidence to prove it, they should sue the party slandering them.
I made a similar point in the Texas Blogger Jailed story earlier:
http://digg.com/tech_news/Texas_Blogger_Jailed_Aft ...
If your rights are being violated (corporations have rights, too) by someone else's overstepping of his/her/it's own rights, then you as the victim of that overstepping (assuming you can prove otherwise) have good grounds for a lawsuit.
(I'm not a lawyer, but if you try talking to a lawyer, the lawyer will say the same thing) - insidein, on 06/02/2009, -2/+29Either way, Last.fm is a fantastic tool for music lovers.
- krystalo, on 06/02/2009, -2/+18http://digg.com/tech_news/Breaking_Techcrunch_are_ ...
- Frostek, on 06/02/2009, -4/+14I wonder if all those people who said "Right that's it - I'm deleting my lastfm account!" at the first hint of unsubstantiated claims now feel kind of stupid?
- krystalo, on 06/02/2009, -1/+11How about Digg being acquired by Microsoft/Google/you name it. Every few months there's a TC story about it, the story tops digg, nothing happens.
- randyzaia, on 06/02/2009, -0/+10Arrington is such a douchebag.
- AndrewDB, on 06/02/2009, -0/+8Thank you Last.Fm.
- frieddonuts, on 06/02/2009, -2/+9I dugg him up but buried you to keep the universe in balance.
- renegadeafk, on 06/02/2009, -7/+14Told you guys techcrunch was full of ***** AGAIN.
- ha3er0, on 06/16/2009, -3/+10Wow, not sure how I missed that. Just dugged that one too. Techcrunch is really full of *****. I have recently unsubscribed from their feed. If you look at their stories, they are either how someone farted on twitter or how someone made an app about someone who farted on twitter. I think a lot of their "announcements" of new online business are just paid "reviews" and its so obvious that its not even funny.
Its amazing how they take in about $400,000 ad revenue per month for writing utter *****. - slightlyoffbeat, on 06/02/2009, -3/+10Michael Arrington, wrong? Couldn't be.
- chriswastaken, on 10/27/2009, -2/+7FTA: "The RIAA told Ars that it hadn't requested the data, and didn't even know where the rumor came from in the first place." Though now they think it's a brilliant idea and will force Last.FM and CBS to hand over said data.
- clintology, on 06/03/2009, -0/+4Pundit Watch tracked TC (and a bunch of other pundits) over the course of a 4 month period during the summer/fall of 2008. TC made 15 predictions (15 of which were settled) and only 13% of them were correct—the worst of the whole bunch.
http://punditwatch.hubdub.com/ - hypografik, on 06/02/2009, -0/+3http://www.techcrunchit.com/2009/05/05/rest-in-pea ...
There, you have it. - techlinks, on 06/02/2009, -2/+5In the US...
- Omek, on 06/02/2009, -1/+4If there is no lawsuit, isn't it rather incriminating towards them. I mean, if they have nothing to hide, then why not sue?
- Killerah, on 06/04/2009, -0/+3What kills me is that this story from a reputable news source has just over 400 diggs, while "Deny This, Last.fm" has over 2400!! Is that because the 2000 people who dugg the original story deleted their accounts and are now afraid to admit that the TechCrunch article was utter crap? Seriously guys, last.fm is a really great service, I can think of no other website that has helped me to expand my musical tastes like them. I'm sticking with em, I'm sure they're in the right here.
- mdoiron, on 06/02/2009, -1/+4You submit information to Lastfm about what you are listening to from your system, either itunes, wmp and other players. If you download a leaked album from say, a torrent and play it you would submit, or scrobble, it to the site. You aren't listening to the songs from their radio station.
- GraceHead, on 06/02/2009, -0/+2these guys seem legit ... ahem
- xedd, on 06/02/2009, -1/+3I wonder how badly last.fm was hit by these "rumours". There was probably a measurable effect.
They might have lost a lot of subscribers, who really knows, except them?
In the end, (whether or not there really was some data being shared), the real issue comes down to the existance of the RIAA and the closeness of the biggest corporations of the music industry to the RIAA, and how much that effects people's trust in any service too closely attached to them.
The "rumours" are VERY plausible. They fit the historical reactions, ethics and attitude of the RIAA and related corporations.
When I read this article I can't help but think it is actually some of last.fm's efforts at damage-control. - ddev, on 06/02/2009, -0/+1There will not be a lawsuit against TC.
Why?
I am not implicating that they did send the data, but most companies do something bad that does not need any public scrutiny.
Wrong of TC to "report" this ***** anyway.
Check source?
(???) - nova77, on 06/02/2009, -0/+1Most of what's on the site is for free anywhere. The radio is just the icing on the cake.
- gingerboy, on 06/02/2009, -0/+1nope, you can use plugins for windows media player, iTunes etc and spotify includes it that track what your listening to (called scroobing), this links to your last-fm account and builds a profile allowing the site to 'suggest' more bands similar to what your listening to as well as add the artists to your 'library'.
Also blogs like wordpress along with FB allow you to show your scroobed data in a 'what I'm listening to' style.
So yes it could be used to find if someone has been listening locally to uunreleased music, but doesnt look like it has.
Heres mine, all played locally: http://www.last.fm/user/gingepaul - RatatRatR, on 06/02/2009, -0/+1I don't think those regional limitations are their fault, though.
- heyimfromreddit, on 06/02/2009, -2/+3And yet again the entire internet jumps to conclusions. Remember when that poor, poor designer had his logo artwork stolen by that evil, evil stock art company? Oh wait...
- jserio, on 06/02/2009, -1/+2Thanks for the clarification. I can see why users might be worried.
- MrTea, on 06/02/2009, -1/+1nah, I hadn't even been using my account
- captaintrips121, on 06/02/2009, -0/+0Consider that 95% of all music produced by the labels, which have dominated music for too long, is not worth listening to, does it not seem that lastfm, or any other radio service, is not really worth the effort in the first place? Lastfm, giving away user account information or not, can only be as good as the music produced in the first place. Hence why I have never been to lastfm, don't illegally download music, movies etc... Why fill my head with pure sh*t? That's what toilets are for.... Flush
- xiambax, on 06/02/2009, -1/+1fmymedia!
- spyka, on 06/03/2009, -0/+0I'd assume it'd be worth too much hassle. Last.fm is a UK company and Arrington/TechCrunch is US based making it harder for any legal action.
Then of course last.fm have to prove damages occured as a result of this story, which would be pretty hard. People commenting saying they've deleted their paid accounts isn't enough.
Also the fact that TechCrunch just reported an email they recieved and used weasel words such as 'we believe', 'we think' etc make help their side
In general it will probably just cost far more money than it's worth. - Pelikoira, on 06/02/2009, -1/+1I hope i can trusth last.fm... It is just so awesome service.
- Hermmunster, on 06/02/2009, -1/+1Even if this didn't happen, you are right, it could. It could at any point. Last.fm is part of CBS as CBS owns it. If CBS says give us the data, do not make any public statements acknowledging it then Last.fm most certainly will comply. Especially since there's very little effort out there amongst large corporations to protect your privacy. We all already know what to think of the RIAA. They are not a respectable organization.
This outcry is strong enough to give them the message that doing anything of this sort is unacceptable, even from an entity such as Microsoft.
No one should be allowing Microsoft or anyone else to collect any information regarding them, unless explicitly allowed.
And, what took them so long to deny it? I know Last.fm did, but what took CBS so long? The accusations were directed right at CBS. Why wouldn't CBS state this early on, right away, immediately? Why didn't they disclose any internal investigations if they underwent any? Who's to say that some mid level manager didn't request and submit it? What would be the point of Tech Crunch lying? Why perpetuate a lie if you knew it was a lie and being rejected by everyone? Why come up with additional information and even agree to pay the legal bills of the person who disclosed the initial alleged breach of privacy? - Hermmunster, on 06/02/2009, -1/+1This isn't completely correct.
Yes, almost everyone listens to music from their radio station. That's unequivocal. They serve music.
But there's a SECOND aspect to last.fm besides listening to music from their servers. That second aspect is that you have applications that can "scrobble" back to their servers for locally played songs. Your media player might be set to report to last.fm anything you play locally and it reports generally mp3 tag info and a few other things; from what I hear possibly a fingerprint of the song. - charleyfeher, on 06/02/2009, -4/+3Michael Arrogant?
- binaryecho, on 06/02/2009, -3/+2Have to agree with the second comment above. Be strange if we DON'T see a lawsuit against TechCrunch. If it is clearly fabricated and only meant as an act of defamation, then the case would be a no-brainer.
- timmeh07, on 06/03/2009, -1/+0I didn't delete my last.fm account, but I have stopped using it. I also waited for the second hint before opting to do so. I don't feel "stupid" for doing so. I don't trust last.fm, or CBS, on their words alone. I trust the goddamn RIAA even less.
I'll go back to Last.fm when they've had their day in court and proven to the court that they have broken no laws (whether in a case against them or a suit against TechCrunch.. in either scenario, they would need to prove such.)
Until then, I'm at iLike.com. - Hermmunster, on 06/02/2009, -2/+1I don't trust any of them. Especially I don't trust the RIAA. Just look at how they lied to a judge in court regarding the idea of making available equates to distribution. You have no idea how bad this organization is. It isn't just it's court antics but also in how it steals from artists. If you don't understand how they do that then a little research in Google will turn up more than enough information about how they have ripped off so many artists it isn't even funny.
I certainly don't trust CBS. And now I'm loosing trust in ARS. - thelastcivilian, on 06/02/2009, -4/+3I keep hearing that Arrington is always wrong, but never actually seen anything to back that up (other than the original version of the Last.fm story).
I'm not trying to be a contrarian here - I'm legitimately curious. Can someone point me to more instances of TC getting things completely wrong? - esquire360, on 06/02/2009, -6/+4Last.fm is dope, amazing how much Data they get, I bet the RIAA watches some last.fm accounts for early release material.
http://www.last.fm/music/Brian+Dunn - heyimfromreddit, on 06/02/2009, -4/+1@techlinks: ...and the UK and Germany, and the rest of the world if you can afford three dollars.
- jserio, on 06/02/2009, -7/+2Sorry if I sound confused but I am not a last.fm use. However, I have been to that site before and it seems like a legit Internet radio-style site where you can choose to listen to music. So if the new U2 song leaked onto the Internet and made its way to last.fm, isn't this more of a problem for the administrator at last.fm who put it online for people to listen to? Or can users submit music to last.fm for people to listen to? It just seems to me like they are trying to punish users who didn't have anything to do with the leak. It's like a new episode of Survivor showing up a few days early on CBSs video site and people watching it. You can't blame them for CBS's error.
- charleyfeher, on 06/02/2009, -19/+2Everyone please Digg the above comment the ***** up.
Thanks.
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