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OTTAWA — The Dire Straits classic Money for Nothing is free to be played across Canada,juicy couturebut it will be up to individual radio stations to decide what version of the song gets aired. The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council said Wednesday that while the song's use of the word "faggot" can be considered inappropriate, its use did not violate any broadcast code. The standards council said in its decision that it is up to broadcasters "to make the airplay choice appropriate to their market." "(Alternative versions) are available for broadcast and, to the extent that broadcasters wish to respect that sensitivity of members of their audience, they have the option to make that airplay choice without any editing of the song on their part," the council wrote in its decision. The offending word itself is "not merely discriminatory and insulting, but it is also aggressive, hurtful and painful," the council decision said. The council said that its decision was not an abandonment of those people who felt the song promoted the use of a "hateful and painful term." "It is only saying that there may be circumstances in which even words designating unacceptably negative portrayal may be acceptable because of their contextual usage. The ad hoc National Panel finds this one such occasion." J.C. Douglas, program director for Halifax radio station Q104, said his station never wavered from playing the uncensored version of the song. When the CBSC first recommended banning Money for Nothing, his station played the offending version of the song continuously for one hour. "We've played that song in its original version since it was first released in 1985," Douglas said. His station has continued to play it since January in the station's regular rotation. According to Douglas, Wednesday's decision implies radio stations should stick to a censored version. "I think the decision is trying to guide radio into the fact that since it was OK with the artist to present the song in a less offensive form, then it should be OK with radio," he said. "I don't disagree with that, but it should be up to the radio stations' own editorial decision and to its own listeners to decide how they feel about the lyric." "If we try and sanitize things like lyrics, when the contextual considerations should allow a free airing, then we take away from the individual listener the ability to decide for themselves what the intent of the lyric was." Douglas said his station received hundreds of messages of support in its campaign to play the uncensored song. Of that support, he said, "98 per cent" was positive. Robb MacKay, music lecturer at Queen's University, said one of the important things the CBSC ban did was start a conversation about the use of offensive words. "We like to think that they've gone away from our lexicon — they have mostly on university campuses — and that's about it," MacKay said. "Most Canadians, I think, don't really think about those words and a lot of Canadians don't really care one way or another if we use them, unfortunately. "I think those discussions should be happening anyway, always. They don't need to be driven by wrong-headed critiques, but I think they need to be driven by some very thoughtful planning and presentation to younger kids," MacKay said. He said the use of the offending word in Money for Nothing might be misconstrued and the CBSC's first ruling allowed for a discussion of the context of the song to take place. "If you don't listen, if you miss the idea that Dire Straits is quoting an otherwise offensive conversation in the first place, it's easy to misunderstand." In January, the council's Atlantic regional panel found that the Dire Straits song should be banned for its use of the gay slur, which appears three times in the song. A public uproar led the Canadian Radiotelevision and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to ask the council to review the decision. In a letter to the council, the CRTC said the ban "elicited a strong public reaction and created uncertainty for private radio stations across the country." Some radio stations violated the ban and played the song anyway. The CRTC asked the council to consider the context of the words in the song, the age of the song and how frequently it has been played since its release, and the use of the offending word since the song was released. The 26-year-old song is a staple on rock stations in Canada. Alternative versions of the song have existed since the British band, led by guitarist-vocalist Mark Knopfler, released it in 1985, the broadcast standards council said. Those alternative versions appear online. The council said in its decision that of the 23 live concerts on YouTube, 17 don't include the "other f-word," five include the word once and only one version includes it all three times. On iTunes, three of the five versions of the song available for download don't include the offending word. "In other words, the band and the composer considered that there was a less offensive way of presenting the song to the public as long ago as the year in which the original version was released," the council wrote in its decision. As for its context in the song, the council's review panel said that the song tells a story and that Knopfler's use of the word was done to satirize the "jealous attitude" of the "bonehead in the checked shirt" who inspired the song. "The panel concludes that this contextual consideration would also on its own justify the usage of the otherwise unacceptable word 'faggot' in the context of the broadcast of this song," the council wrote in its decision. The council also said that review panel didn't see the age of the song as a material issue.