Paul Anka Says Michael Jackson Stole ‘This Is It’ Song

Your article constitutes libel under U.S. law. By no stretch of the imagination can it be said Michael Jackson "stole" the song or did anything illegal. Michael has never been convicted of burglary--or anything else that I know of. He co-wrote the song and recorded the vocals. Why wouldn't he be entitled to a copy of his own work? Michael did not release the song, his estate did. Certainly, Paul Anka should be entitled to half the publishing rights, but your article makes it sound as if Michael himself did something unseemly to obtain someone else's song. You should re-write this.

My article would constitute libel if it was I who said it and not Paul Anka himself. When news broke, TMZ spoke to Anka. From here http://www.tmz.com/2009/10/12/paul-anka-michael-jackson-this-is-it-I-never-heard/

“Anka tells TMZ in 1983, he wrote a song with Jackson called ‘I Never Heard’ – and the demo of the song was recorded in Anka’s studio in Carmel, CA. Anka says he took the tape to a studio in Hollywood to put the finishing touches on it for Anka’s duets album, ‘Walk a Fine Line.’ Anka claims Jackson – who was just blowing up at the time with ‘Thriller’ – got a big head and ‘stole the tapes’ from the studio.”

Do notice how “stole the tapes” on which the song was comes in between commas: this means it’s a claim Anka himself made that Michael took the recording although he wasn’t supposed to. Before I re-write anything, please make sure you read what the article says carefully and only afterwards reach a conclusion. This is not in any way meant to disparage Michael Jackson, this is meant to report on a fact: and that fact is that Paul Anka claims MJ stole a song from him. Thank you for your comment.

The article that you have written here clearly states that Jackson stole the song. You do not refer to the TMZ article in yours; you do not put the word "stolen" in quotation marks. In your article, you say that Jackson stole the song, not that Anka said Jackson stole the song. This constitutes libel. I have read your article in its entirety. The TMZ article does the right thing - yours does not.

It’s there in the headline: “Paula Anka *Says* Michael Jackson Stole ‘This Is It’ Song.” He says it, not I. Further on, first paragraph: “and that’s because it was practically the same song, *as music icon Paul Anka has stepped forward to claim*, as E! Online can confirm.” He claims it, not I. How is that not clear that Anka says it? What comes next is me reporting on said claims, under the assumption that it was no longer necessary to add “Anka claims” at the end of each sentence. However, to avoid such misunderstandings in the future, I put “stole” between inverted commas. Thank you for your comment.

MJ didn't steal anything. If he co-wrote the song with Anka, then its also his song and tapes. It was just housed at Anka's studio.