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

Is is disclosed?

[Rude Turnip]

Does Wal-mart at least label their CDs in retail stores and disclose in their online store that the songs are edited versions? The politics of it aside, as long as they are upfront about selling edited versions of songs, then I have no problem with it. However, if they are not being honest about selling songs that aren't the "real" ones, then that is plain deceptive.

Re:Is is disclosed?

[LWATCDR]

The ones I saw had an edited sticker. This will get modded down but Wal-Mart isn't censoring anything. They have simply told the music companies that they will not carry albums with parental advisory stickers. The record companies don't have to comply. Wal-Mart isn't censoring anymore than you are if you choose not to watch Fox News.

I do find it a little silly that they worry about "bad" words but sell alcohol, tobacco, and guns.
I find tobacco a lot more offensive and family unfriendly than most bad words.

Re:Is is disclosed?

[qor]

- Alcohol often lets a very shy person open up and talk to people they never would normally, therefore breaking an initial barrier (hell, I know). And I have nothing against minors drinking responsibly, even more so with parental supervision. Nothing better than a son sharing his first beer with his father (oh wait, that would imply a certain level of parenting) - Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Guns are only the means to do it. Otherwise, religion kills people, cars kill people... so on and so forth. - Tobacco is as evil as that spread crap they sell in the US instead of good old butter. The tobacco companies are just as evil as Wal-Mart. PEOPLE decide to smoke, not the tobacco industry. A bit of frigging self-control never killed anyone. But then, we have alcoholics. We have gun-crazed people who think everything can be solved by just pulling the trigger. We have 8-year-old kids smoking. Everything can be solved by just getting rid of those so-called 'evils'? Why don't we get rid of all the science books as well? Then maybe the atomic bomb wouldn't have been invented. People need to get their heads out of the sand, and look reality in the eye. Truth hurts. Deal with it. I might be modded troll for this, but it's sad to see that still today people hide behind preconceived notions of 'good' and 'evil'.

rights?? censorship??

[bcrowell]

Why is this under "your rights online," and why is the word "censorship" used in the summary? Censorship is when the government infringes on your free speech. If a private organization doesn't want to sell you a particular item, that has nothing to do with the first amendment. Joe's Bar and Grill doesn't offer any CDs for sale -- does that constitute censorship? No, it just means that Joe didn't choose to offer a particular item for sale at the bar. It seems particularly ludicrous to complain about this at a time when there are so many real and horrible civil liberties problems in the U.S., e.g., the attorney general declaring that there is no right to habeas corpus in the constitution.

Re:rights?? censorship??

[Kjella]

Village (world), meet boy (slashdot) who cries wolf (censorship) way too often. Think Wal-Mart is doing it out of a genuine interest to promote family friendly music? Hell no. They're just selling the stuff with the highest margins and that don't scare away other customers. Censorship isn't when you grocery store doesn't stack $foo brand frozen yogurt for business reasons. Maybe, if Wal-Mart had a monopoly status on selling music then perhaps you could talk about censorship, but even then it's waaaaaaay of a stretch.

Re:rights?? censorship??

[M. Baranczak]

Censorship is when the government infringes on your free speech.

Bullshit. Censorship is censorship. The government doesn't necessarily have to be involved.

If a private organization doesn't want to sell you a particular item, that has nothing to do with the first amendment.

The first amendment is irrelevant here, and nobody even mentioned it, so I don't know why you brought it up. And just because something is legal, doesn't mean I have to approve of it.

It seems particularly ludicrous to complain about this at a time when there are so many real and horrible civil liberties problems in the U.S., e.g., the attorney general declaring that there is no right to habeas corpus in the constitution.

So in other words, until we get an AG that actually respects the Constitution, we can't complain about all the other petty bullshit that goes on around us? That might take a while.

Re:Worthless store

[Feanor1]

I dont like the store either, but this is NOT really censorship.
As a store that is owned by someone(s), managed by someone(s), they have the right to decide what it is that they will and wont sell. Its ashame that our society doesn't care that these are not the true songs that were released, but
1) Walmart has the Marketshare
2) Record Companies want to be in those locations
3) Record Companies bend to walmart.

Its not like they dont have a choice. And obviously its what many people want. If you want to call something worthless, call the Artist that allows their intellectual property (which they have most likely sold to the Label) to be modified from its orig. artistic form, Assuming they arent just out for money as well.

Value Add

[jumperboy]

The important distinction is that, in this case, censorship adds value for some consumers, while DRM does not.

Re:Worthless store

[Goldberg's Pants]

Playing devils advocate, WalMart do have very low prices, and if you're on a low income, they are a great place to shop. There's always the argument made that they kill local businesses. That much is true, sort of, but there was a story recently about a town that didn't want WalMart, but they opened anyway. Then after a few years, for whatever reason, it closed down, and the town wanted it BACK. It didn't KILL local business. It changed it. Other stores opened up near the new WalMart etc...

Their album censorship is nuts. I've known about since I saw a piece on TV about Rob Zombie's "Hellbilly Deluxe" and it played the regular version, and the WalMart version.

Of course what's interesting is they do this with Parental Advisory stuff. The recent Nine Inch Nails album "Year Zero" has no such label on it, despite having quite a few incidences of the F word on it. I wonder if that got past them?

WalMart are considerably evil. But for many, they are an evil necessity.

government, corporation, and individual can do it

[Scrameustache]

I dont like the store either, but this is NOT really censorship.
As a store that is owned by someone(s), managed by someone(s), they have the right to decide what it is that they will and wont sell. Censorship is defined as the removal and/or withholding of information from the public by a controlling group or body.

censorship - deleting parts of publications or correspondence or theatrical performances
censoring
deletion - the act of deleting something written or printed
Bowdlerism - censorship in the form of prudish expurgation
Comstockery - censorship because of perceived obscenity or immorality

Not all censorship is equal, nor does all arise from government or external force.

censorship, official prohibition or restriction of any type of expression believed to threaten the political, social, or moral order. It may be imposed by governmental authority, local or national, by a religious body, or occasionally by a powerful private group.

I don't know who taught you to think that it's not censorship when it's done for profit, but you were lied to. Censorship is done by whoever has the power to do it, no matter if the power used to do it is by nature political, capital or personal.