Amazon threatened with legal action, removes offensive Man United CD from site

Following pressure from Arsenal supporters, Amazon is the latest retailer to have removed a Manchester United CD containing supporters' chants. One such chant, was a song labelling someone as a paedophile and it's been directed for so many years at manager Arsène Wenger.

Amazon had originally said that they wouldn't remove the product due to its policy on 'free speech', and stated that it would be censorship to prevent certain repugnant views from being aired.

A standard PR letter from Amazon issued to Arsenal supporters who had written in, said: "Amazon.co.uk believes it is censorship not to offer for sale certain titles with repugnant or distasteful content, and we would be rightly criticised if we did so. As a result, we will continue to make controversial works available in the UK and everywhere else, except where they are prohibited by law. "

However, after even more pressure from the national press, the giant American retailer seems to have caved into the pressure and have now removed the item (both CD and MP3 download) from the site.

Play.com removed the CD immediately when complaints started flooding into them. Apple however, are still selling the CD in their iTunes store.

Writer Paul Williams also took the liberty of writing to Manchester United's Director of Communications to ask for his views on why his club were still allowing their supporters to sing that song.

Read Phil Townsend's response to Paul here.

UPDATE: It's now been revealed that the online retailer took the decision to remove the offensive item after a formal complain from Arsenal Football Club. A statement from Amazon states: "Arsenal Football Club has provided us with formal notice that content within the album 'Manchester United Chants' is defamatory in nature and we have, therefore, removed this title from our website. We would not remove a product from our site because some, or many, people find it to be distasteful or otherwise objectionable. We believe it is censorship to make a product unavailable for those reasons."

However, when asked about the issue, the club said that the CD was withdrawn only after Manchester United told Amazon that the product infringed on their intellectual property rights. The CD however, is still stailavle on iTunes, and a standalone MP3 version of the offensive song is available for download and purchase.

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