The music industry has always been a prime target for thieves. With blank tapes and CDs people made copies for their friends and family. Ten came Napster and everyone was sharing their music with people they did not even know.

Two Michael Jackson fans accused of stealing unreleased music by the late King of Pop from Sony’s computers are confident they can prove their innocence.

According to Boston.com, James Marks and Jamie McCormick claim they are eager to point out to Michael Jackson’s fans and family that they would never do anything to harm the legacy that is Michael Jackson’s music.’

The two British men were arrested last year after Sony Music Entertainment noticed a breach of its systems.

The entertainment company has a seven-year deal, worth up to $250 million, to sell unreleased recordings by Jackson, who died in 2009 at the age of 50.

Sony says no customer data were compromised in the attack on the company’s internal music-sharing system.

Marks, 26, and McCormick, 25, pleaded not guilty last week at Leicester Crown Court in central England to computer misuse and copyright offenses. They were freed on bail and are due to stand trial in January.

The case is not believed to be linked to Anonymous or Lulz Security, loose-knit hackers’ collectives, broadly sympathetic to the WikiLeaks’ secret-spilling site, who have targeted government and corporate websites around the world.

One of the problems with modern technology, with everything electronically available, is the possibility of hackers stealing the information. While people always are innocent until proven guilty, my gut asks the question how they obtained these unreleased recordings if they did not steal them. What do you think?