Several Michael Jackson tribute websites are no more.
Last week, a federal judge in Los Angeles ordered Howard Mann—a Canadian memorabilia dealer who worked on a tribute book with Jackson’s mother—to take down michaeljacksonsecretvault.com, mjgives.com and other similar sites because they violated copyrights held by the Jackson estate.
"There is undisputed evidence that (Mann) intended in bad faith to profit from use of Jackson's name, by registering multiple domain names containing his name or the initials 'MJ' to sell Jackson-related products," U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson wrote in his ruling.
Jackson’s estate first filed suit in January 2011, claiming the music and images Mann used on his sites were in violation of the estate’s intellectual property rights. The copyrights are used for the benefit of Jackson’s three children and his mother, Katherine.
Read more about this suit on Thomson Reuters.
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