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I think a lot of people agree with your suggestion that one easy
way to solve this problem for parents would be to put the actual
words there, so that parents could see them. In fact, the National
Association of Broadcasters made exactly the same request of the
record companies.
I think your suggestion is an intriguing one and might really be
a solution for the problem.
Mr. ZAPPA. You have to understand that it does cost money,
because you cannot expect publishers to automatically give up that
right, which is a right for them. Somebody is going to have to
reimburse the publishers, the record industry.
Without trying to mess up the album jacket art, it should be a
sheet of paper that is slipped inside the shrink-wrap, so that when
you take it out you can still have a complete album package. So
there is going to be some extra cost for printing it.
But as long as people realize that for this kind of consumer
safety you are going to spend some money and as long as you can
find a way to pay for it, I think that would be the best way to let
people know.
Senator GORE. I do not disagree with that at all. And the separate
sheet would also solve the problem with cassettes as well,
because you do not have the space for words on the cassette packs.
Mr. ZAPPA. There would have to be a little accordion-fold.
Senator GORE. I have listened to you a number of times on this
issue, and I guess the statement that I want to get from you is
whether or not you feel this concern is legitimate.
You feel very strongly about your position, and I understand
that. You are very articulate and forceful.
But occasionally you give the impression that you think parents
are just silly to be concerned at all.
Mr. ZAPPA. No; that is not an accurate impression.
Senator GORE. Well, please clarify it, then.
Mr. ZAPPA. First of all, I think it is the parents' concern; it is not
the Government's concern.
Senator GORE. The PMRC agrees with you on that.
Mr. ZAPPA. Well, that does not come across in the way they have
been speaking. The whole drift that I have gotten, based upon the
media blitz that has attended the PMRC and its rise to infamy, is
that they have a special plan, and it has smelled like legislation up
until now.
There are too many things that look like hidden agendas
involved with this. And I am a parent. I have got four children. Two
of them are here. I want them to grow up in a country where they
can think what they want to think, be what they want to be, and
not what somebody's wife or somebody in Government makes them
be.
I do not want to have that and I do not think you do either.
Senator GORE. OK. But now you are back on the issue of Government
involvement. Let me say briefly on this point that the PMRC
says repeatedly no legislation, no regulation, no Government
action. It certainly sounded clear to me.
And as far as a hidden agenda, I do not see one, hear one, or
know of one.
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