It's easier to understand the disgust you're feeling about TMZ publishing the photo of a battered Rihanna when you know how much Harvey Levin — who says he didn't swipe it from the LAPD — paid for it. So here's the amount:

$62,500, according to the website TheMediaBuffet.com, which cites the same source who pegged Nadya Suleman's very pregnant photo as having been bought by TMZ for $22,000, and the O.J. Simpson hotel break-in tape for $165,000. (It's more than double the $25,000 figure we were throwing around at Jossip HQ.)

Insider TMZ turncoats spilled the numbers Levin's minions are believed to have shelled out for pix taken of Rihanna immediately after the alleged Chris Brown attack. The source of the photo leak, a law enforcement insider close to the investigation, reportedly raked in $62.5k, double the salary of the person suspected of leaking the pic. Sources state TMZ pays a relative or friend of the snitch within 24 hours of receipt of a photo to cover their tracks. TMZ has been in the business of paying high dollar amounts for coveted pix. In 2007 Thomas Riccio, O.J. friend/auctioneer, was paid a mind boggling $165k, our sources say, by check delivered to his home, from TMZ, for photos and recordings related recent memorabilia heist O.J. was jailed for.