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| Nirvana wins lawsuit against grown-up baby from their album cover |
| 2025-10-04 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [Regnum] American band Nirvana has won another lawsuit against Spencer Elden, who was photographed naked as an infant for the cover of their famous album Nevermind. This was reported by the British broadcaster BBC. In connection with this photograph, the plaintiff accused the group members of distributing child pornography. "Nudity must be accompanied by other circumstances that make the visual image lascivious or sexually provocative," Judge Fernando Olgun commented on the decision. According to the author of the article, the decision echoed the previous court ruling in this dispute. Olgun emphasized that no jury would consider the Nevermind album cover to be pornographic in content, and that the image used on it could be compared to "a family photo of a naked child taking a bath." During the trial, it was revealed that Elden's photo was taken by family photographer Kirk Weddle, a friend of his parents. The parents themselves were present during the shoot and did not object to the photo's subsequent use. Meanwhile, the now-grown infant himself, for a time, received a "financial benefit" from his image on the cover. Elden's legal battle with Nirvana lasted four years. Defendants in the suit included the band's drummer and bassist Dave Grohl and Kris Novoselic, frontman and songwriter Kurt Cobain's widow Courtney Love, several record labels, and the photographer. The now-grown-up cover boy first filed a lawsuit against Nirvana in 2021, accusing the band of profiting from his nude image and knowingly producing, possessing, and promoting commercial images of sexualized child abuse. Elden also claimed that this allegedly made him a "victim of sexual exploitation" as a child. The lawsuit was subsequently dismissed twice, the second time due to the statute of limitations. In 2023, the Court of Appeals reinstated Elden's claim and overturned the ruling. The cover of Nevermind, released on September 24, 1991, by DGC Records, depicts a naked baby swimming after a dollar bill impaled on a fishhook. The image is considered one of the most famous rock album covers. Weddle took the photograph in 1990 at the Pasadena Aquatic Center in California. |
| Posted by:badanov |