The basic threat of a libel suit against an individual is supposed to be “Even if you successfully defend yourself, the legal bills will be ruinous.” (For a bigger outfit, that’s nonsense, because they have more activities to leverage the PR benefit over, and they can afford the cash anyway. Libel’s only a problem for them if they actually lose.)

Having a third party defray the costs obviously helps avert that.

I must confess, however, that I’m in an unusually good position. First, I was trained as a stock analyst, where the standards of accuracy are even higher than libel prevention. (Not only mustn’t you say anything negative about a stock or company without solid grounding, you can’t say anything too positive without solid grounding either.) Second, I write about subjects and have relationships that make the “Reach out to a competitor for support” tactic a very easy one to implement.

TechCrunch refuses to let their claim that Last.FM gave CBS user data which was passed onto the RIAA lie. In a post called Deny This, Last FM, they claim that:
CBS requested user data from Last.fm, including user name and IP address. CBS wanted the da…