Janet Jackson’s legendary ‘wardrobe malfunction’ seems like ancient history now — but CBS has only just won its legal battle over the infamous nipple slip.
Today judges finally ruled that the network, which broadcast her notorious half-time duet at the 2004 Superbowl, won’t have to pay a half-million dollar fine for "indecency".
After ninety million people heard Justin Timberlake sing, "Gonna have you naked by the end of this song," before tearing off Janet’s bustier to reveal her right boob, the Federal Communications Commission handed the broadcaster a $550,000 fine.
But the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has now said that the punishment had been unfair to CBS, because the watchdog had treated the incident differently from similar TV moments.
The three-judge panel said that the FCC had "acted arbitrarily and capriciously" when it issuing the fine for the blink-and-you’ll miss-it nudity, reports Billboard.
The court said that for nearly 30-years, the FCC had only fined for indecent footage when it was so amounted to "’shock treatment’ for the audience."
But the judges said that the FCC suddenly changed it policy in the Janet Jackson case without giving advance warning.
The moment became the most searched-for in the history of the Internet, and Justin introduced a new phrase into the language when he called the mishap a ‘wardrobe malfunction’.
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