Talk about beating it. After pleading guilty last September on charges of downloading almost 8,000 files from Sony's servers, Spin reports that James Marks, 27, and James McCormick, 26, got off Scott-free. Well, almost: The pair, who met online, won't be spending the night in a jail cell anytime soon, however, a U.K. judge sentenced each to 100 hours of community service.
Marks and McCormick got their hands on the songs, which included rare Michael Jackson material, when Sony's PlayStation Network was hacked back in April 2011. The two were promptly arrested in May after Sony informed the U.K. of the breach.
According to Spin, some of the goodies included unreleased tracks from Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad. Had the songs been released online, Sony would have found itself in very hot water. The company has a seven-year deal reportedly worth $250 million to sell Jackson's unreleased recordings.
[via Spin]
