This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Legal
Rammstein album unbanned
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 16 June 2010
The original version of Rammstein album ‘Love Is For All’, or ‘Liebe Ist Für Alle Da’ to give it its German name, is no longer banned from public display in record stores in Germany.
As previously reported, last November the snappily titled Federal Office For The Examination Of Media Harmful To Young People banned the album from being put on public display in German record shops, mainly because of the long player’s depictions of sado-masochism. Concern was also expressed regarding the explicit nature of some of the artwork and over the song ‘I Want To Hurt You’, which, as well as its S&M overtones, was deemed to promote unprotected sex.
The ban also stopped label Universal from advertising the record and record shops from selling it to anyone under eighteen. The major label responded by releasing an alternative version of the long player with the offending content cut.
But they also went legal over the ban, filing a lawsuit last December. And now an administrative court in Cologne has overturned it, meaning the original uncut version of the album can now be put back on display in record shops, be sold to minors, and be advertised by the label.
According to Billboard, the court ruled that the song ‘I Want To Hurt You’ does not contain detailed or real description of violence, rather only “a surrealistic hint at violence”. Meanwhile, the FOFTEOMHTYP – or BPjM to give it the abbreviated name the government agency actually uses – failed to explain why the description of sado-masochism in songs could be harmful for the sexual development of young people.
The BPjM can now appeal the court ruling, though the Rammstein album can be put on display etc with immediate effect. Meanwhile, a rep for Universal Germany told Billboard they would challenge any new efforts by the youth protection agency to ban their band’s record.
