The organization managing the star’s legacy has been waging a relentless judicial war since the broadcast of the documentary which paints a murderous portrait of the interpreter of Thriller.
Since the release of the chilling documentary Leaving Neverland In March 2019, the Michael Jackson Estate waged an unrelenting legal war against the film’s producer, the cable channel HBO, and claimed a hundred million dollars in damages. In Leaving Neverland , Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who frequented the king of pop as children, paint a murderous portrait: that of a predator, a manipulator who set his sights on young boys.
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Documentary trailer (in English)
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The American foundation, which manages the posthumous career of Michael Jackson, has just won another victory. His lawyers do not attack the content of the film by saying that everything is false and that it is libel. They are just saying HBO broke a 27-year-old contract clause related to broadcast rights to a concert on the tour Dangerous, filmed in Bucharest, Romania. In this clause, the cable channel must “not to make unpleasant remarks about the artist, his representatives, his agents which could tarnish their reputation“. HBO was also to notify Michael Jackson in the event of the broadcast of additional programs concerning him. According to the foundation, the king of pop included such clauses in his contracts because he could no longer bear the slightest criticism because of the tabloids which, for years, described him negatively.
The Michael Jackson Foundation attacked HBO a few weeks after the film was released worldwide. His lawyers made the complaint public. They have since refused to say why they wanted such publicity. But according to HBO lawyers, the foundation is trying to intimidate other victims of sexual abuse who would like to break the silence. On Monday, however, HBO suffered yet another setback in an appeals court. The judges confirmed that the terms of the old contract were still valid and therefore that the settlement of the dispute should be subject to a “ arbitrage ».
In this more rapid and private, and therefore more discreet, extrajudicial procedure, the parties submit their dispute to a tribunal composed of three arbitrators: one appointed by each of the parties and a third chosen by the other two judges. If they believe that the Michael Jackson foundation is right then they will fix the amount of damages. It won’t necessarily be a hundred million dollars. Rather, it would be a question of whether fans have stopped buying Michael Jackson’s music and merchandise after watching the documentary. And therefore how much the shortfall is estimated.
The next meeting is scheduled for August 20 in Los Angeles. HBO representatives will then have to tell the judges if they agree to go to arbitration or if they prefer to take the case to the Supreme Court. Whatever happens, the process is gone to take months. The M6 group in France, Channel 4 in Great Britain… None of the other channels in the world which broadcast the documentary is concerned today. Unlike HBO, they were not linked to the Michael Jackson Foundation by such a contract.
Michael Jackson: The Power of the Fans by Richard Lecoq
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