Wal-Mart Sued Over Evanescence CD Lyrics

[g-smooth2k]

Source: NY Times

Maryland Couple Sues Wal-Mart to Censor Evanescence Lyrics on CD It Sells or Stop Selling It

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) -- 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.

[serrebi101]

all over the word fuck, it's not like it's out in the open anyway, lol.

[Wolfie]

They (Wal-Mart) would not be in this mess to begin with they had not appointed themselves the moral police of book, music and movie retail.

[SanDiegoKid]

They (Wal-Mart) would not be in this mess to begin with they had not appointed themselves the moral police of book, music and movie retail.

Well said. By ecouraging the belief that certain words are more than words, but "bad", they've dug their own hole.

[rebirth]

I think it's funny people are suing them for NOT editing something. WTF?

[black_magiic]

I still hate people like that, some people REALLY need to loosen up. When you get down to it, ultimately its only a word; its all in how you percieve it. If you want it to bed a "bad" word then thats what it will be; or you can just say "big deal" its only a word.

[hawkburn]

America as a whole is just nation of prudes. As long as we let the government tell us that un-moral things are horrible, we'll never see anything past Britney Spears.

On a side note: What did they expect from Evanescense (sp?) - it's a gothic type rock band... did they expect it to be a family Christian album?

[rainbowdemon]

Do such words actually come out of Amy's pretty mouth?

:fire :fire

[mfgbypooter]

Walmart sucks. I wish more people would sue them.

BTW how many movies does walmart sell that has the word fuck in it?

[ducttapeBigSexy]

i work in a retail store, and i gotta say, on one day alone, i hear fuck dropped by customers more then i would hear listening to that cd. so, i guess wal-mart's next move should be to ban all people from entering the store, b/c they might drop a word everyone has already heard

[moneoa]

This is just some dudes greedy ass going for the juggular.
His daughter says fuck at least 300 times daily while talking to her friends for sure.
I hope the judge sees this as the frivolous shit it is and throw it out.

[ratbag]

america land of the frivolous lawsuit

moneoa im suing you for saying shit

[Malakai1911]

People shouldn't listen to censored music anyway, its not how the artist originally intended the song.

If you don't like cursing, content, whatever, then don't listen to the band, find someone else that is more your thing.

[Siskabush]

Oh come on. They spazz about the F-word, but they have no problem with letting thier kids watch some whore belly dancing on TV or at a lip-synched concert.

Get real people.

[Stownplayer]

FUCK Wal-mart and fuck stupid lawsuits.