• Steam recently changed the default privacy settings for all users. This may impact tracking. Ensure your profile has the correct settings by following the guide on our forums.

Last.fm hands over info to RIAA.

Serideth

Serideth

Active Member
Deny This, Last.fm

"A couple of months ago Erick Schonfeld wrote a post titled “Did Last.fm Just Hand Over User Listening Data To the RIAA?” based on a source that has proved to be very reliable in the past. All hell broke loose shortly thereafter."
 
...and that the data could possibly be used in civil and criminal actions against those users...
Click to expand...

Wait, why could it be used against users? is last.fm not legal or something?

A bit confused. Never really used last.fm before.
 
I think the information they have given to the RIAA can be used to identify those who have been listening to albums or music that has not been released, and so has been pirated.

I'm unsure as to whether they are able to prosecute people using this information though.
 
Why exactly should I care? They cannot use this information to prosecute anyone. Beside, RIAA has wisened up finally, they have stopped going for individuals.

I really don't see how this is in violation of Last.fm's private policy. It explicitly states that data may be sent over to third parties:
Certain third parties may have access to your data (which may include personal information, but not your email contact information) via our API and webservices or arrangements with our business partners. These people may use this information for their own purposes, which may be either commercial or non-commercial in nature and may include targeted advertising or direct marketing. These third parties may be based in the U.K. or elsewhere in the world.
Click to expand...
You agree to this private policy by registering on the site. So if are seriously paranoid about data being sent over, do not use Last.fm, simple as that.
 
TechCrunch has never been the most reliable site, so I'm not sure I buy this just quite yet anyways. No real proof is given in the article that they had committed wrong and actually handed the data over, just seems to be a handful of assumptions.

Here's the statement from a last.fm staff member:
"Nothing I can say will convince you that this didn't happen, because allegedly CBS did the deed and not us. I hope that CBS will issue their own denial soon, but the wheels of large companies run slowly.

This accusation was made the evening before a three-day holiday weekend in both the UK and the US. Yet again, we were not given the opportunity to respond.

The article claims that "This source
 
James. said:
I'm glad according to last.fm I'm a 150 year old who lives in the middle east :)
Click to expand...

As someone else posted, the data collected was IP addresses. Which means they know who are and where u live..


But back on topic, I don't use Last.fm. I'm sure use on last.fm will dramatically drop.
But seriously, i don't understand what the big deal is. The only thing that happened were some laws were broken, a job was lossed and some companys got pissed at each other. I mean seriously, what can the RIAA do with the information? The only thing that they could do with the information is be able to tell that joey listens to this radio station that plays nickelback on it.. And the whole concept of streaming music is 100% legal. With that said the could use it as a reference to tell the information that they collect from their undercover P2P clients.


Back off topic that was a very good peace of journalism from techcrunch
 
Last.fm Blog - "Techcrunch are full of shit"

Take off your tinfoil hats people and think about this for a second. You can tag any song with any name, which last.fm records. I could just tag a Beatles album with with the album name and all the song titles of the early release of Relapse. There's nothing to say that's not what all the people with early release scrobbles did.
This could not be used as evidence or anything of the sort.
 
Good on them for calling TechCrunch out.

FrozenIpaq Ninja Edit: What he ^ said
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top