Wal-Mart Ditches DRM, Keeps Censorship

Smiley Face writes "Wal-Mart has hopped on the DRM-free bandwagon with today's announcement that it will be participating in Universal's DRM-free sales pilot. The quality looks good: 256Kbps MP3 for 94 cents apiece, but customers are likely to be turned off by the retail chain's continued censorship. 'It's a bit hard to believe that all the customers who shop at the world's largest retailer want censored versions of music, though, but that's what they get. Only edited versions of albums with parental advisories are available, just as they are in Wal-Mart's offline stores. This isn't a new policy; Wal-Mart's online music store has carried only edited versions for years, but it's worth pointing out to potential new users tempted by the lower prices and lack of DRM.'"

Comments

Just shows Wal-Mart isn't all bad

[Reality Master 101]

Considering the type of music that typically has two versions, I can only assume that parts of it being removed can only be an improvement.

Wait a minute, I wonder if that CD of Beethoven Piano Sonatas I bought the other day from Wal-Mart was censored... *then* we would have something to complain about.

Is that true?

[antifoidulus]

Its been years since I have bought a cd at Wal-Mart, but I did manage to get Coal Chamber there unedited(though the Korn CD I bought was edited...bleh). So at least some Wal-Marts sell some unedited songs....

Amazing, they can poison our dogs and children no problem, but if somebody should utter the word "fuck" then Wal-Mart has a hissy fit.