Legal Issues
"Will You Be There" was the subject of two lawsuits. The first was for copyright infringement of the Clevelend Orchestra's recording and lack of credit to Beethoven for the use of his symphonic prelude. The suit was filed by the Cleveland Orchestra for 7 million dollars and was settled out of court. Subsequent printings of Dangerous have included full credits in the album booklet. The second lawsuit was a claim of plagiarism by Italian songwriter Albano Carrisi who claimed that "Will You Be There" was copied from his song "I Cigni di Balaka" ("The Swans of Balaka"). After seven years, an Italian court ruled in favor of Jackson, stating that while the two songs were very similar, they both may have been inspired by the Ink Spots 1939 hit "Bless You for Being an Angel". Carrisi was ordered to pay all legal fees related to the case.
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