Janet Jackson

Janet Jackson

TV bosses at America's CBS network have won an appeal against the $550,000 (£343,750) fine they were slapped with following Janet Jackson's infamous wardobe malfunction at the 2004 Super Bowl.

The pop superstar's half-time performance at the American football championships, which aired on CBS, hit headlines when collaborator Justin Timberlake ripped off part of Jackson's top to reveal an almost bare breast.

The original indecency case was thrown out of court on the grounds that the incident, which lasted just nine-sixteenths of a second, was too fleeting to warrant a fine.

However, the issue was revisited in 2009, when officials at the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania were instructed to reconsider the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) penalty.

The case has finally been put to rest - on Wednesday, court officials dismissed the issue and claimed that in imposing the fine, FCC bosses had broken their own rules which made "fleeting" indecency exempt from punishment.