Wal-Mart Sued Over Evanescence CD Lyrics

4 hours ago

By DAVID DISHNEAU, Associated Press Writer

HAGERSTOWN, Md. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which promotes itself as a seller of clean music, deceived customers by stocking compact discs by the rock group Evanescence that contain the f-word, a lawsuit claims.

The hit group's latest CD and DVD, "Anywhere But Home," don't carry parental advisory labels alerting potential buyers to the obscenity. If they did, Wal-Mart wouldn't carry them, according to the retailer's policy.

But the lawsuit claims Wal-Mart knew about the explicit lyrics in the song, "Thoughtless," because it censored the word in a free sample available on its Web site and in its stores.

The complaint, filed Thursday in Washington County Circuit Court, seeks an order requiring Wal-Mart to either censor or remove the music from its Maryland stores. It also seeks damages of up to $74,500 for each of the thousands of people who bought the music at Wal-Marts in Maryland.

"I don't want any other families to get this, expecting it to be clean. It needs to be removed from the shelves to prevent other children from hearing it," said plaintiff Trevin Skeens of Brownsville.

Skeens said he and his wife, Melanie, let their daughter buy the music for her 13th birthday and were shocked when they played it in their car while driving home.

Wal-Mart, of Bentonville, Ark., has no immediate plans to pull the CDs from its shelves, spokesman Guy Whitcomb told The (Hagerstown) Herald-Mail. He said the company will investigate the allegations. No hearing dates have been set.

"While Wal-Mart sets high standards, it would not be possible to eliminate every image, word or topic that an individual might find objectionable," Whitcomb told the newspaper.
He told the Herald-Mail that the song sample online was censored by Walmart.com, a separate division of Wal-Mart.

Whitcomb didn't return telephone calls Friday from The Associated Press.

The lawsuit also names as defendants Wind-up Records LLC, the New York-based company that recorded the music and decided not to apply parental-advisory stickers; and distributor BMG Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony BMG Music Entertainment, of New York.

Sony BMG declined to comment on the lawsuit. Wind-up didn't return calls from the AP.

The Skeens' lawyer, Jon D. Pels of Bethesda, said he aims to "take this case national, even if that means going state by state."

He dismissed Whitcomb's suggestion that Wal-Mart stores didn't know about the censored version of the song. "They are a multimillion-dollar corporation and they certainly can communicate among their various entities," he said.


Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


Ri -fucking- diculous.

Oh no, the f-word.

Quick, someone let President Eisenhower know. This travesty must not go unpunished.

As much as Evanescence sucks ass...




WAL-MART IS A FUCKING HOMO

Solution?

Don't buy CDs from Wal-Mart if you do not care for the censored versions.

I don't.

And that makes me happy

Anyone watch the frontline special on Walmart?

As far as I'm concerned everyone should sue Walmart for being a giant sh!thole of a company.

Stop frivolous lawsuits! For once, people take my side.

Gogo Ayn Rand and the libertarian front!

Um, you're the dumbass that bought the CD. Wal-Mart didn't make you buy it. It's not their job to make sure your kids don't hear the "F" word.

That's exactly the problem. Wal-Mart has taken it upon itself to make sure that your kids don't hear the f-word by only selling censored cds. One slips through the cracks and people blame Wal-Mart. In this case, Wal-Mart deserves the blame and I hope they lose big time. If Wal-Mart didn't require artists to censor their cd's and left well-enough alone with the Parental Advisory stickers, they'd wouldn't be at fault in this case. The fault would lie 100% on the parents for letting the kids buy an album w/a PA sticker. This is why PA stickers were created.
You could say that Effervesence was at fault for no putting a PA sticker on the album, but if anything, they probably didn't put one on for fear that Wal-Mart wouldn't carry it. So now PA stickers won't be enough, censored versions won't be enough. albums will have to carry a certified-clean sticker in order to make these fucking people happy. Fuck them all.

If they promote their CDs as being "clean" by that standard, they should live up to it. It is not their job to make sure kids don't hear the F-word, but it is their job to live up to what they advertise.

I know for a fact the they sell the Pearl Jam bootlegs in wal mart. I know Eddie cusses up a storm in those and I know that they aren't censored.

Anyway, Wal-mart tries to get the record companies to censor the music and put stickers on the albums. I know more than a few albums have cuss words in them at wal - mart. I don't think they've ever claimed to get rid of every offensive thing on CD's but merely try to do it. This lawsuit is bogus as much as I hate Wal-mart.

Anyway Parental Advisory stickers are there for guidlines and haven't really been put to use in recent years on most albums. Hell, look at Riot Act. How many fucks does save you have in it?

why censor the words anyway? They are just that, words. Although, I will think it is funny if Wal-mart looses this, for their false advertisement of selling clean music.

I'm kind of torn on this. As someone who hates Wal-mart, I want to see them loose this. As someone who hates censorhip, I dont care because thats what both sides are advocating. Or at least, One side is advocating and the other has been known for advocating.

I do like how they only sell "clean" albums, but yet sell Rated R movies and the like. I dont know what makes an album worse, I dont care. All I know is that it should stop. Its the parents responsibily to moniter what their children listen to, not big chain stores. Besides, most people that do not want their kids to hear the word "fuck" seem to forget that they probably hear and say it more times within an hour during school, I know I did when I was in grade school.

Why do kids need to be so heavily sheltered to begin with? Honestly. Do the parents involved think their 13-year-old hasn't heard the word fuck before? How naive could they possibly be? It's so ridiculous. Take responsibility for your own actions. If the parents are so concerned, they can look up the lyrics themselves first. Or they could just get over it and stop pretending their kid has no knowledge of vulgarity.
I was swearing in elementary school. I mean, honestly. Parents need to get a clue and teach their kids how to conduct themselves properly around different types of people instead of suing corporations for not protecting their precious babies from coarse language. They're just words, anyway. It's not like fuck, shit, etcetera are slurs.

It's a good thing I wasn't listening to Guns N' Roses "Get In The Ring" when I was 12. Who knows what that would have done to me...

I agree.

My main wish though is that both sides go down (not realistic), because both sides are pro-censorship. If wal-mart sold CD's that were not censored, then they would not even be in this kind of mess. With censoring CD's wal-mart is not only saying what children cannot listen to, but also what adults cannot listen to. I feel sorry for people in towns that the only place to buy CD's is Wal-Mart because of that. Its a parents job to control what their children hear, this whole situation is just retarded

I find it funny that they can sell "R" rated movies and "M" rated games with no problems whatsoever, yet if a CD says the word "fuck" and it can be bought at Walmart there is a backlash. Movies that swear alot more than any album I've heard, have stronger sexual content than any album I've heard, more violence than any album I've heard are fine with these people.

Again, this is not censorship. You have a right to not sell music that you find offensive in your store. And people have a right to not have music that they consider offensive in their home. If Walmart wants to provide a means whereby they can sell the music and people can buy it if they consider it offensive, its their own prerogative.

What is important here is that (a) they advertise clean music and (b) they sell non-clean music. They should either stop advertising clean music or sell clean music. I hope they lose this lawsuit.

Oh, I understand that. But it seems so petty to sue over this, in my opinion. I mean, how bad could the lyrics have possibly been? Is the kid scarred for life now? Please. Complaining is understandable, but I think that filing a suit is ridiculous.

When have they ever Advertised clean music? They try to censor music so most artists edit their CD's to be sold in Walmart to make money. I doubt that they listen to every CD. But I've never opened up a Sunday advertising section of Walmart and found anywhere that they provide clean music. I tthink it's just something that they try to do, not a guarantee.

I personally would not file a lawsuit, as I have no problem listening to an album with the f bomb in it. I know many people, however, who think that is a major thing. Still too petty to sue, probably, but this person probably sees himself as someone who is standing up for what he believes.

Ha, I was 10. My mom took Use Your Illusion II away from me when she read the lyrics.