While CBS was fined $ 550,000 by the FCC for the incident – the largest of its kind – the Third Circuit Court ruled in 2008 in favor of the network, saying the FCC was “arbitrary and capricious” by imposing such a fine acted “for what the Court considered an accidental split second of nudity. A year later, the Supreme Court decided not to hear the case and sent it back to the Third Circuit for reconsideration. By 2011 the court had ruled again in CBS’s favor.
In January 2014, Powell, who by then had left his position as FCC chairman, admitted the committee had acted “unfairly” to Jackson and told ESPN that the committee had overreacted. “Personally, I found it really unfair. It was all about her,” he said. “In reality, if you slow this thing down, it’s Justin who’s ripping off her chest.”
While the incident devastated Jackson’s career for years, there was at least one positive remnant out of all the chaos. Immediately afterwards, a young software programmer called PayPal Jawed Karim, frustrated with his inability to find a video of the performance on the internet, has teamed up with some friends to create a place where people can easily upload and share videos. And in 2005, YouTube was born.
