Wal-Mart sued over ‘f’ word
p2pnet.net News:- Trevin Skeens and his wife, Melanie, let their daughter buy Evanescence`s Anywhere But Home from Wal-Mart for her 13th birthday.
But when they played it in their car on the way home, they were rudely surprised.
Why?
Because although the lyrics contained the word `fuck,` there was no `explicit language` parental advisory label, says the Hagerstown, Maryland, Herald-Mail.
Now the Skeens have lodged a class-action suit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc of Bentonville, Arkansas; Wind-Up Records LLC of Wilmington, Delaware; BMG Entertainment of Lanham, Maryland; and BMG Distribution of Lanham, Maryland, says the story.
They want the CD removed from shelves, or a warning label put on it, their lawyer, Jon D. Pels, is quoted as saying. They`re also asking for up to $74,500 for each class member, people who bought the CD in Maryland.
Wal-Mart says it has no immediate plans to pull the CDs from its shelves, and no hearing dates have been set, says the Herald-Mail.
“The recording industry takes seriously our responsibility to help parents identify music with explicit lyrics, said ex-RIAA boss Hilary Rosen back in 2000.
We believe that not all music is right for all ages and our Parental Advisory Label was created for just that reason.
“I think that it is hypocritical for the music industry to claim that it is helping parents by placing a parental advisory [explicit content] label on a CD, while at the same time undermining parents by aggressively marketing the same CD to children,” said Federal Trade Commissioner Orson Swindle a year later.
The FTC had just released, Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children: A Review of Self-Regulation and Industry Practices in the Motion Picture, Music Recording & Electronic Game Industries.
Of the 55 music recordings with explicit content labels the FTC reviewed, it found all 55 were aimed at children under 17.
Rosen’s statement responding to a follow-up study would lead anyone to conclude the FTC had awarded the RIAA a large pat on the back for a good job well done.
Her puff release said: “The Recording Industry has made tremendous progress in our campaign to inform parents about the Parental Advisory. Surveys show that public education is what parents care most about and we are confident in our success in this area.
“We are heartened that the Federal Trade Commission’s report did reflect the many steps we have taken and the progress we have made to strengthen our program.”
Far from acknowledging the music industry’s sterling efforts, however, the FTC singled it out for further deep criticism and Swindle wrote a separate statement to the FTC’s 5-0 approval of the report to specifically emphasize, “the lack of serious attention given by the music industry and by retailers to the Commission’s recommendations in its two earlier reports,” concluding:
“After over 12 months of scrutiny, reports, and numerous recommendations, the music industry and retailers have chosen to do next to nothing. I am deeply skeptical that the government could or should try to compel industry to improve its performance. But I also do not think that we should merely identify the problem here and then walk away. Instead, we – the Congress, the Commission, parents, and the general public – must persuade the music industry and retailers to change their behavior to solve the problem.”
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See:-
explicit language – County couple sues Wal-Mart over lyrics, Herald-Mail, December 10, 2004
December 11th, 2004 at 6:07 pm
Frivilous
December 11th, 2004 at 6:11 pm
This is just history repeating itself, over and over again.
Its not a federal law to have a parental advisory label, aka “The Tipper Sticker” on a cd at all, and especially not over 1 swear word would it constitute the label. Placing the label is a record label decision to comply with wishes of retailers and the likes of the RIAA. If this were a law, labels like Panzerfaust and Resistance Records would be in prison right now (These labels carry cds by anti-minority groups like Angry Aryans and Hatemonger and dont have any labelling system)
Point #2 is that it seems like every few months, someone has to try to sue wal-mart for everything out there. If her parents were so conservative they wouldnt have let her have the cd in the first place. Its just another classroom case of show and tell.
And #3 is that even though wal-mart doesn’t carry records with parental advisory labels, they do in fact sell R-Rated movies, Shotguns, Bullets, and other things that directly kill people including anything manufactured that mentions Rosie O’Donnell’s name.
Claiming any retailer is responsible for a record label decision is like blaming McDonalds for the world being so fat. Its up to people themselves to take care of things, not the messenger.
-MP
December 11th, 2004 at 6:49 pm
but macdonalds IS responsible for the world being fat
December 11th, 2004 at 8:13 pm
“Theyâre also asking for up to $74,500 for each class member, people who bought the CD in Maryland.”
$74,500 per f-word. Should have bought an Eminem CD; you’d all be millionaires!
December 11th, 2004 at 10:14 pm
god how pathetic with all the shit that is on tv and in films now kids get exposed from very young, big deal on f word! just getting rich thru compensation culture
December 12th, 2004 at 1:34 am
but the world is NOT forced to eat macdonalds; the responsibility is in the hands of customers who buys products.
December 12th, 2004 at 4:15 am
If your subject is empty, there is nothing to click on in order to see the comment!
Someone should probably append a to subjects when showing them, so there is something to be clicked on in case of no subject.
Either that or to provide a default non-empty subject when the subject is empty.
Following is the text of the previous comment.
“Theyâre also asking for up to $74,500 for each class member, people who bought the CD in Maryland.”
$74,500 per f-word. Should have bought an Eminem CD; you’d all be millionaires!”
December 13th, 2004 at 2:23 am
fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck
December 13th, 2004 at 6:41 pm
world = USA
December 16th, 2004 at 11:20 pm
This is what is wrong with the world today. WAL-MART DID NOT MAKE THESE PARENTS BUY THIS. ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS. YOU ONLY WANT MONEY!!!
November 19th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
They act as if children (in this case its really teenagers) hearing the word fuck will give them aides or something.