Dire Straits Canadian Ban Over

In January Dire Straits had the song censored in Canada after one listener complained to a local radio station.

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council said it was too offensive for Canadian broadcasts because it includes the word "f*ggot" three times.

The body launched an investigation after a listener complained that an unedited version of the song had been played on St. John's radio station CHOZ-FM in February 2010. The complaint said the song, written by Mark Knopfler and Sting, was "extremely offensive" to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

The track was the first single to be taken from Dire Straits 1985 album Brothers In Arms and earned the group a Grammy Award.

However, Rolling Stone reports that the ruling has been overturned - with provisions - by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC). 

The new decision was based on what CBSC calls "considerable additional information" – such as learning that alternative versions of "Money For Nothing" have existed since 1985, proving "the band and the composer considered that there was a less offensive way of presenting the song to the public long ago" and the context in which the word is used demonstrates that "the composer's language appears not to have had an iota of malevolent or insulting intention."

The CBSC added that the time/age issue alone "will not save a challenged song" and that the Atlantic Regional Panel was "correct in its view of the inappropriateness of the word" for broadcast on Canadian airwaves.

Stations now have the option to play the original version or any one the alternative versions.

(Rolling Stone)