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Author Topic: WalMart sued for the F Word.... Dave Williams Wet nipple scene Posts: 1836 From: Salt Lake City, UT, USA Registered: Jan 2000 posted 12-10-2004 08:01 PM                        Yes it's a nation of nine year old's!!! Wal-Mart Sued Over Evanescence CD Lyrics 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.  |  IP: Logged Andrew Shingleton Film Handler Posts: 63 From: Richmond, Victoria, Australia Registered: Feb 2004 posted 12-10-2004 08:56 PM                     How did they arrive at the $74,500 figure? In fact, how can they claim "damages" at all? If you could get a payout every single time you heard that word, most people would never have to work again!  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Fuentes Mmmm, Dr. Pepper! Posts: 1168 From: Corpus Christi, TX United States Registered: Jan 2004 posted 12-10-2004 10:27 PM                     I'm gonna buy Team America at Wal-Mart when it comes out on DVD so I can enjoy it without cuss words. Wait, the movies there are censored too, right??  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 12-10-2004 11:39 PM                    I think we should all buy some stock...even if only a few shares...and make it clear to their management that most people are opposed to censorship. Stock your media department in conjunction with sound business practices like any other media store.  |  IP: Logged Carl Martin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1424 From: Oakland, CA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-11-2004 03:43 AM                        quote: Dave Williams 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. it was my impression (and hope) that the parental/paternal/prenatal advisory stickers were voluntary. not that the rest of the lawsuit is any less frivolous, of course. carl  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 12-11-2004 10:11 AM                        So I take it Wal-Mart is not the place to go if I want to buy a Quentin Tarantino DVD or an Eminem album then...  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 12-11-2004 11:33 AM                        WalMart is not the place to go, period. Never never never. Bad juju.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-11-2004 12:12 PM                     As much as I don't like silly, frivilous lawsuits, I'm all for this one. Companies need to learn that they can't go around instituting policies just because they look and sound good to the public. If Wal-Mart is going to institute a policy of censorship then they are going to have to stick to it, no matter what the cost. It sounds to me like they are saying, "We are a family friendly, no cuss-word kind of place." But when a hot selling CD comes out they casually "forget" about their policies so they can make a quick buck. If Wal-Mart is truly going to stick to this censorship policy they are going to have to hire a committe of blue-haired old ladies to sit down to watch and/or listen to every second of every video and music CD in their inventory and approve it BEFORE it goes onto their shelves. Anything less is proof that they do not institute policies based on what they think is good for the community but based on how much money they can pack into their bank accounts in the short-term. Just like several years ago when they decided not to sell handguns in their Sporting Goods departments but, to this day, many of they still sell handgun ammumition! Wal-Mart needs to learn a lesson. This isn't just a bunch of bullshit they can peddle when it serves their purpose!  |  IP: Logged Adam Wilbert Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 590 From: Bellingham, WA, USA Registered: Mar 2002 posted 12-11-2004 12:36 PM                        aren't the lyrics printed in the liner notes of the cd? It sounds like the parents were being lazy and passive. It was my impression too that the rating system was voluntary, just like the MPAA and the ESRB. I'm pretty sure that they don't carry censored DVDs. Anyway, the lyrics are here if you want to see them all, but: quote: Why are you trying to make fun of me? You think it's funny? What the fuck you think it's doing to me? You take your turn lashing out at me I want you crying with your dirty ass in front of me quote: Thumbing through the pages of my fantasies I'm above you, smiling at you, drown, drown, drown I wanna kill and rape you the way you raped me And I'll pull the trigger And you're down, down, down if I were a parent, i'd object to that last bit more than the first...  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-11-2004 12:43 PM                        The saddest part is the way the musicians of today can't get their point across without resorting to that kind of stuff. I mean, Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" was one of the dirtiest records of the 1970s, but there's not a censorable word in the song!  |  IP: Logged Allison Parsons Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 630 From: East Peoria, IL Registered: Oct 2004 posted 12-11-2004 12:57 PM                        I could go on and on on how Walmart is a bad bad company but I wont (Walmart says:"no foul language here folks, BUT WE GOT GUNS!") Anyone remember them changing Nirvana's song "rape me" into "waif me"? As an independent record store clerk, it is my duty to tell everyone that even though we can not compete with Walmarts prices (they tell the companies how much they want to sell their item so they best comply or else..) we believe in freedom of expression: Bad language, blood/guts/gore, tits, asses, etc etc. Soooo, if your looking for that hard to find import Carcass album with all it's foul glory, then go to your local mom and pop record store. If your looking for songs like Waif Me, then go to Walmart. Want to buy the new copy of a Maxim magazine? Then come to us since Walmart wont carry them. Need a Pantera shirt with a stripper and a pot leaf on it! WE GOT EM! Bet you wont find those at your local Walmart. I am now going to get off my soap box.  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 12-11-2004 03:19 PM                    one thing you must understand about this band and the whole situation is this. When their first album came out they became associated by mistake by the christian comunity. The band out right said thaey where not a christian influanced band. Now when one goes out to by the new album they assume that it will be clean and sobber of all bad.  |  IP: Logged Tony Bandiera Jr Film God Posts: 3067 From: Moreland Idaho Registered: Apr 2004 posted 12-12-2004 12:57 AM                     ...A nation of nine-year-olds..... Seems most nine-year-olds these days say fuck anyway. And where did they learn it from? Well, at the motocross tracks I worked at/raced at, seems daddy (And sometimes mommy) was the #1 offender.... It all starts with lack of parental responsibility.....  |  IP: Logged Barry Martin Expert Film Handler Posts: 203 From: Newington, CT USA Registered: Jul 2002 posted 12-12-2004 05:41 AM                        Motorcross or them bringing their kids to see South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut or Team America: World Police.  |  IP: Logged Bruce McGee Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1776 From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular. Registered: Aug 1999 posted 12-12-2004 08:12 AM                     They bought this disc for a 13 year old? Whats up here? Did she live in a convent? Can they say that she has never heard the word before? Hmmm... I want everything Bigger Longer and UNCUT!!!!  |  IP: Logged

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