Two British fans of pop star Michael Jackson were handed suspended sentences after serious hacking and conspiracy charges were dropped.
Leicester Crown Court heard yesterday that a security flaw in the eCard file-sharing system used by Sony Music, known as the ‘Sony server’, allowed two British men – James Marks, 27, and Jamie McCormick, 26 – to gain access to thousands of copyrighted files.
The pair pled guilty to charges of ‘unauthorised access to computing material’ after the initial ‘conspiracy to defraud’ charges were dropped by prosecutors.
The investigation of Marks and McCormick was initiated by Sony Music when a producer alerted the record company that unreleased material he claims to have co-written with Jackson was obtained by the two alleged hackers.
When it was discovered that Marks and McCormick resided in the UK, Sony turned the matter over to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) to investigate further and build a case against them.
SOCA, which was unofficially referred to as the ‘British FBI’, was established in 2006 as a public body of the UK Government to participate in the investigation and prosecution of cyber terrorists, drug traffickers and other offenders involved in serious organised crime.
Marks and McCormick, however, merely downloaded some songs.
Nevertheless, SOCA conducted raids on the homes of both men in mid-2011, during which they were handcuffed, arrested and later charged with an alleged conspiracy to defraud Sony Music to the tune of millions of dollars.
As part of the raids, SOCA seized computers, USB devices, hard drives, CDs and DVDs. Agents also raided their workplaces and the home of McCormick’s partner.
Mick Jamieson, head of Cyber Investigations at SOCA, said:
“The internet’s a fantastic tool for everyone to use, but sadly there are one or two individuals who choose to misuse it. The authorities are now able to to identify what you’re doing, find out who you are, and come and arrest you.”
While Marks and McCormick have admitted they did indeed access Sony’s file-sharing server, the pair contend that the server has never technically been ‘secure’, and that blackmarket music sellers, traders and prominent online remixers have exploited the server’s lack of security for quite some time.
A forensic examination the Sony server, conducted as part of the investigation of Marks and McCormick, uncovered the IP addresses and identities of the most prolific offenders, including a handful of those aforementioned sellers, traders and remixers.
Yet, of all those who’ve had access to the Sony server, only Marks and McCormick were raided, arrested and charged.
The case of Marks and McCormick centres around their joint quest to find evidence that Sony and the Estate of Michael Jackson defrauded millions of Jackson’s fans when they released the Michael album in December 2010.
Michael sold more than two million copies worldwide.
The album includes three songs alleged by many – including the Jackson family – to be forgeries, sung by an impostor vocalist.
Those three songs – “Breaking News,” “Monster” and “Keep Your Head Up” – are now infamously known as the Cascio tracks.
The tracks were sold to Jackson’s estate in mid-2010, by the pop star’s longtime associates Eddie Cascio and James Porte, as part of a collection 12 songs they claim Jackson recorded in Cascio’s basement.
The nine other Cascio tracks remain unreleased.
In the case of Marks and McCormick, it was alleged by SOCA and Crown prosecutors in the UK that the men accessed Sony’s online server with the intention of stealing thousands of files, including Michael Jackson’s entire catalog of music.
But Marks says those allegations are patently untrue.
Both Marks and McCormick are huge Michael Jackson fans, and have legally purchased copies of all of Jackson’s commercially available material – purchases which have financially benefitted Sony.
The men also reject SOCA’s assertion that they downloaded files from Sony’s server with the intention of defrauding the record company to the tune of millions of dollars.
Marks says he and McCormick only had one goal when searching the servers for material:
“The reason we were on those servers was to find the Cascio tracks.”
Marks, McCormick and countless fans insist that the Cascio tracks are sung by a deputy sheriff in the American state of Maryland, who goes by the name Jason Malachi.
Despite the fact that Malachi is not a Sony artist, SOCA listed a number of Malachi’s songs among almost 8,000 files which Marks and McCormick were alleged to have been stolen from Sony’s server.
“According to the prosecution, I downloaded Jason Malachi files from the Sony server,” quipped Marks, claiming that SOCA seemed to have confused the contents of a generic Firefox downloads folder on his computer with what had been obtained from Sony’s server.
The original ‘conspiracy to defraud’ charges levelled at Marks and McCormick were far more serious than the ‘unauthorised access’ charges they ultimately pled guilty to.
If Marks and McCormick had been convicted of the conspiracy charge, the men could have faced serious jail time – for merely downloading songs.
In a witness statement provided on behalf of Jackson’s estate, a rep declared the Estate’s “full support” of the prosecution of Marks and McCormick.
In order to be charged with any kind of conspiracy crime, two or more people must conspire together to commit the alleged offence.
In the case of Marks and McCormick, the conspiracy to defraud charge was based on private chat logs discovered by SOCA agents during a sweep of their computer hard drives.
Within those chat logs, SOCA alleged that Marks and McCormick had conversations in which they masterminded a plan to sell some of the files they had obtained from Sony’s server.
However, Marks and McCormick insist that their conversations about selling files were not related to files obtained from the servers, and that those conversations took place one month before they even knew about the Sony server.
“Those conversations were regarding privately obtained material, before any server access took place,” says Marks.
So what were Marks and McCormick discussing selling in the March 2011 chat logs uncovered by SOCA?
According to Marks and McCormick, prior to learning about the Sony server, the pair had acquired a handful of unreleased Michael Jackson demos in a private transaction with another fan.
Marks and McCormick say they paid 80 pounds for the files.
Once they’d obtained the files, Marks and McCormick discussed the idea of selling them to other Jackson fans – the same way the files had been sold to them.
“We discussed the possibility of selling them to other fans,” admits Marks.
“But we decided against it, and that was that. No sale was made and we never shared the material. We didn’t want to risk being responsible for the songs leaking to the public.”
The underground trade of rare music is widespread, and the activity is not exclusive to the Michael Jackson fan community.
In fact, the circulation multi-track recordings and unreleased material is common in the online fan communities of most major artists. It even happens in plain sight – on fan forums, and marketplace websites like eBay.
This begs the question: if these activities are commonplace, then why were only Marks and McCormick targeted by Sony, and aggressively pursued by SOCA?
According to Marks and McCormick, it was to quash their efforts to investigate and expose the Cascio tracks as forgeries.
In the end, in exchange for a guilty plea to ‘unauthorised access’ of the Sony servers, Marks and McCormick were and were handed six month prison sentences, suspended for a year.
Speaking outside Leicester Crown Court yesterday, Marks apologised for downloading files from the Sony server, but maintained that he was determined to prove that Jackson didn’t sing on the Cascio tracks.
Later on, via Twitter, Marks added:
“I’m grateful to the Judge for being lenient. I fully accept that I accessed the server and apologise to Sony… I wish to move on and rebuild my life.”
Marks and McCormick will each complete 100 hours community service as part of their plea deal.
A podcast series detailing my investigation of the Cascio tracks, called Faking Michael, is currently in production. Subscribe to Faking Michael on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube to be notified when episodes are released.
Damien Shields is the author of the book Michael Jackson: Songs & Stories From The Vault examining the King of Pop’s creative process, and the producer of the podcast The Genesis of Thriller which takes you inside the recording studio as Jackson and his team create the biggest selling album in music history.
