Well, we asked for a denial, and they’re gift us one. Russ Garrett, a Last.fm developer, issues added blanket denial of the Last.fm individual accumulation fiasco:

Nothing I crapper feature module persuade you that this didn’t happen, because allegedly CBS did the accomplishment and not us. I wish that CBS module supply their possess forgoing soon, but the wheels of super companies removed slowly.

This averment was prefabricated the daytime before a three-day transfer weekend in both the UK and the US. Yet again, we were not presented the possibleness to respond.

The article claims that “This source?s aggregation comes candid from Last.fm employees who he has uttered with.” Nobody at Last.fm knows anything most much a leak. We didn’t when they terminal wrote an article, and we don’t now. Any suasion that we were complicit in transferring individual accumulation to whatever ordinal band is incorrect.

The literal nature of the accumulation that was allegedly transferred is ease not clear. It’s tacit that the accumulation linked scrobbles to IP addresses. That portion accumulation is dominated tightly exclusive Last.fm and is exclusive stored for a brief punctuation of time. Any letter for much accumulation would hit to be authorised by myself first. The suasion that CBS’s ops aggroup provided this accumulation is meet not doable – Last.fm operates as a removed entity and their dealings body do not hit admittance to our system.

As Arrington points out, transferring personally classifiable accumulation (i.e. IP addresses) from the UK to the US is against accumulation endorsement laws. We wouldn’t venture a causa to supply to the RIAA’s requests.

It rattling seems same someone is disagreeable to asperse us here.

Last.fm cofounder Richard Jones, the communicator of the “TechCrunch are flooded of shit” locate from February, also quipped “busy sending accumulation to the RIAA… Oh wait, no, that’s ease nonsense.”

A certain feature of the locate turns up rattling lowercase actualised information. There’s choler over the story, choler over us not gift them a heads up, and a evidence that it’s impracticable for accumulation to be dispatched to CBS without Garrett’s knowledge. They also feature “Any suasion that we were complicit in transferring individual accumulation to whatever ordinal band is incorrect.”

We requirement more than that.

First, it’s precise that we didn’t speech to Last.fm or CBS before bill this story. Our efforts to do so in the instance hit been met with a brick wall. CEO Felix Miller has unqualified refused to hit whatever candid conversation with us, instead pointing to Last.fm’s New royalty supported PR group. We’ve been disagreeable to hit an soured or on achievement conversation with him for months.

But to the meat of our locate and the news as told by our sources, we requirement candid answers. A bedding forgoing crapper easily be issued if modify whatever diminutive conception of the news we reportable is outside or up for discussion. Given the severity of the story, we conceive its clean to communicate Last.fm and CBS meet what did happen:

1. Are they claiming that the initial story, including the telecommunicate allegedly from a past CBS employee, was completely fictitious by our source? Was there no accumulation letter by CBS in February? If there was one, was accumulation transmitted to CBS? Did CBS transfer it on to the RIAA or digit or more penalization labels?

2. You feature “Any suasion that we were complicit in transferring individual accumulation to whatever ordinal band is incorrect.” Ok. How most a suasion that you were innocently participating in transferring accumulation to a ordinal party, and afterward outraged when you unconcealed what happened?

3. We conceive Last.fm staffers hit been agreeing with our news in clannish conversations for whatever time. Why the clannish commendation and the unstoppered panoptic denial? We hit emails from Last.fm and CBS employees that are locution quite the oppositeness from what you are.

4. We conceive Last.fm locate in panoptic newborn accumulation policies mass our Feb story. If the example news was completely untrue, ground did they locate newborn accumulation policies in place?

5. What is CBS’ function on this story?

We every see that Last.fm is status and “rather pissed off.” But what we rattling poverty to undergo is meet what happened in February. Was accumulation requested? Was it supplied? Can CBS vantage accumulation candid from Last.fm without Last.fm’s involvement?

We rest unstoppered to on or soured achievement conversations with Last.fm, which has been our function throughout this story. The phones are ringing. They’re meet not answering.

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