Thousands of music files of the late “king of pop” Michael Jackson were allegedly stolen from Sony Music by computer hackers, according to reports.
Sony Music, inked a deal with Jackson’s estate in 2010, the year after the Michael’s death, to release 10 albums covering previously unreleased material and his back catalogue.
The deal was previously reported to be around $250 million.
On Friday, two men appeared in a British court facing charges connected with the alleged security breach. They were arrested last May and charged in September.James Marks and James McCormick denied the charges.
According to the Serious Organized Crime Agency, they were remanded on bail and were due to stand trial in January next year, reports Reuters.
Sony Music released a statement:
“We confirmed the breach last May and immediately took steps to secure the site and notify authorities,” the company said. “As a result, the two suspects were arrested. There was no consumer data involved in the incident.”
Sources could not confirm British media reports that tens of thousands of files, most of them by Jackson, were allegedly downloaded illegally, although files can vary from entire tracks to small snippets of music.
