lol

So the RIAA could *claim* that you *supposedly* listened to certain tracks, while you can just as easily get someone else to prove how easily they could be wrong. It’s all basically the equivalent of digital hearsay, I guess. This is assuming they don’t search your HDD and find anything incriminating, of course That’s a whole new situation though (and that’s why they invented programs such as Truecrypt, but that is way digressing lol)

So in short: The RIAA in reality could do NOTHING with the scrobbled data they took. Your IPs? A little scarier, but it’s no better or worse – less dangerous, in fact, than the RIAA sitting on a torrent and getting the list of IPs of seeders. At least in this case they can’t prove your IP has done anything tangible…

(Removing abusive/threatening comments is fine, of course. But plenty of perfectly civil comments have also been removed with no good reason and I’ve found multiple e-mail addresses which have apparently been blacklisted from making comments, based on the fact I dare point out how unconvincing these rumours are. If you won’t/can’t show convincing evidence, you have no right to be annoyed when people don’t believe you, and no integrity if you censor them for doing so.)

http://blogs.ws...usations-again/

If CBS/Last.fm violated some laws in transferring the data, that selfsame data would be inadmissible as evidence in any resulting lawsuit, no?

Somewhere in your previous post you casually mention oh wait – maybe they didn’t actually send the data, just that they were going to, then didn’t. You’re not even sure if it was sent or not?

And then the CEO of the Last.fm outright says it didn’t happen, and couldn’t have happened without him knowing it, and all you say is “that’s not enough you have to answer these 20 other questions.”

And yet you sprung this whole thing on them on memorial day weekend, without waiting for a response from them in advance. Sure, they maybe did something to make you all mad and think you didn’t have to give them that opportunity, but you’re supposed to be the bigger party here.

Is it really that surprising they don’t feel like going through some five circles of hell answering your every single question now when you couldn’t bother to, you know, ask them beforehand?

You’ve gotten yourself into a pickle. Maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not. But a redacted, anonymous email does not proof make. Fact of the matter is it’s innocent until proven guilty, and to prove this, now, you’ve got to actually get someone to go on record and say something.

A clumsy PR response does not a guilty party make. Nor does one that’s pissed off about how you sprung this on them again without giving them a chance to respond with the original article. Nor is a party guilty that *almost* sent the data, but at the last minute didn’t. And they absolutely don’t owe you any more answers.

Finally, as tempting as it is to make the argument otherwise, just because they’re not suing your ass to oblivion over this does not automatically paint them as guilty either. That’s a tenuous one, I know, but fair’s fair.

As you repeatedly claim – you are accusing them of violating the law. If you have concrete, verifiable proof – something that sound stand up in court – provide it. Otherwise, simmer down.

“WRT real evidence, I don’t know what more we’ll be able to post. That’s just the way it is.”

lulz.

I wouldn’t call you back on the phone either if you were spitting potential slander out of every orifice of your public forum. I’d respond publicly with the exact same things I’d say to you on the phone – just as Russ has.

Also, I trust Russ – his personality is such that he’d rather say nothing at all than tell a lie. Plus, If you look historically, Arrington has always had it in for last.fm. The thing I’d love to know, is who, exactly from last.fm would write an e-mail like the one arrington published on here. It certainly doesn’t read [in a technical way] like anyone who has ever worked in the last.fm office, or had hands on with the systems.

I suppose, if arrington actually wanted to offer some real evidence – beyond words that could quite easily be fiction -, he could publish the mail-headers, with date/message-id obfuscated. The message pathway would certainly add some credence to his story – that said, I doubt he’s beyond forging e-mail headers based on previous contact with cbs/last.fm.

Until such a time as anything authenticatable comes to light – which I’m pretty sure won’t -, I believe arrington is most definitely full of crap, and this entire news story is solely to drive hits to his site.

As to why last.fm isn’t offering proof that this didn’t happen. Well… tell me… how do you prove something that didn’t happen didn’t happen?

Disclaimer: I was a last.fm employee from 05/2007-10/2008, working in the ops team with Russ and RJ. Whether this makes me biased, or more credible than Mr Arrington is entirely for you to decide.

Both companies suck, although last.fm was actually once a great service, khtxbai.

Honestly… deleting valid requests about information and your insight in this matter and connected issues from the past do not make them go away. They make your accusation only less believable…