Michael Jackson's files allegedly stolen by hackers

By on 10:22 AM

LONDON - A large number of music files of the late "king of pop" Michael Jackson were allegedly stolen from record company Sony Music by computer hackers, sources familiar with the case said on Monday.

Sony Music, a unit of Sony Corps, signed a $250 million deal with Jackson's estate in 2010, the year after the "Thriller" singer's death, to release 10 albums covering previously unreleased material and his back catalogue.

On Friday, two men appeared in a British court accused of offenses connected with the alleged security breach. They were arrested last May and charged in September.

James Marks and James McCormick denied the charges under the Computer Misuse Act and the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act at Leicester Crown Court.

According to the Serious Organized Crime Agency, they were remanded on bail and were due to stand trial in January next year.

Sony Music did not have an immediate comment to make on the allegations, and the IFPI record industry lobby group declined to comment on an ongoing investigation.

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.

The allegations come less than a year after Sony faced widespread criticism over its systems security when hackers accessed personal information on 77 million PlayStation Network and Qriocity accounts.

The company later revealed hackers had stolen data from 25 million accounts of a separate system, its Sony Online Entertainment PC games network.