Well the thing that got me was there was an assertion in the email that the last.fm employee was concerned about how not handing over the data would affect thei

Well the thing that got me was there was an assertion in the email that the last.fm employee was concerned about how not handing over the data would affect their rates - which sounded like the data could possibly be have handed directly to one of the record companies in question, which then found its way into the hands of the RIAA. So, in that respect, CBS's simple denial stating that they never handed data over to the RIAA is accurate - because they worded it that way, that doesn't mean that they didn't know that that the data ended up in the hands of the RIAA. So to visualise it, it would look like. last.fm > cbs > record label > riaa That way, all of the denials by last.fm and CBS would be "true" and yet, the TC story would still be fundamentally "accurate". (EDIT - This is just speculation on my part from all of the information I've read. I'd have to side with TC because I doubt TC would publish several stories on the matter, months apart, if there wasn't even a hint of truth to the matter. I'd definitely trust the credibility of Arrington anyday over that of your average PR representative.)