So, How Much Do You Trust RIAA’s Promise to Reign In Its Rabid Lawyers?

Update: last.fm disputes the allegation.

I think we’ll find out soon, if this blurb at TechCrunch is to be believed:

That leaked U2 album is causing all sorts of trouble. The unreleased album, which is due out on March 3, found its way onto BitTorrent and was downloaded hundreds of thousands of times. That, apparently, sent music industry lawyers over at the Recording Industry Association of America into a fit. As a result, word is going around that the RIAA asked social music service Last.fm for data about its user’s listening habits to find people with unreleased tracks on their computers. And Last.fm, which is owned by CBS, actually handed the data over to the RIAA. According to a tip we received:

I heard from an irate friend who works at CBS that last.fm recently provided the RIAA with a giant dump of user data to track down people who are scrobbling unreleased tracks. As word spread numerous employees at last.fm were up in arms because the data collected (a) can be used to identify individuals and (b) will likely be shared with 3rd parties that have relationships with the RIAA.

The article goes on to suggest an alternate theory that an intermediary may have obtained the information without disclosing that it was ultimately destined for RIAA.

I can see the attraction of sharing your music consumption in social networks….but perhaps some folks need to think about how that information might be misused?