Here Today... Gone To Hell!

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.

Source: Yahoo Launch

What a fucking joke.  ::) They better not win this case. It would be very sad in my eyes if they do. I should go to Wal-Mart tonight and buy this DVD and CD and then I can pick up a cool 74,000 maybe.  :hihi: jk

That's censorship for you. :rant:

A store that doesn't sell albums with swearing in? Over here any shop that tried that would be lauged at, America seem's very strange.....

But you can pick up any violent, profane, and/or sexual new rated R release you want...Truly puzzling.  :confused:

great point!  they should bann all media with any cussing then.

2. its not America.......  it's Wal-Mart -  other stores sell the shizzle fine.  Acually America is geting out of control with censorship again, ex. the fcc,.  I think there should be a law that prohibits huge super-stores from not giving all artists an even fair shot!!!!!   how ya like that?

3. who buys music at wal-mart anyways? lol ..... I just go to best buy for the popular stuff

-BP

You must all be mistaken, Wal-Mart were sued not because of the Evanescence lyrics, but because the music is shite and people were appauled that they were going to have to pay Wal-Mart money to have it.

I don't understand the grounds for the suit. I mean unless it's for false advertisement as a seller of "clean music". There's no law saying certain stores have to sell clean cds. Either way screw these people suing walmart. They're either doing it to make a quick buck or they actually think that if their 13 year old daughter hears the word fuck it's going to ruin her life. Either they're gready pricks or stupid assholes. Either way I hope they get laughed out of court.