{"id":96693,"date":"2025-10-02T04:17:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96693"},"modified":"2025-10-02T04:17:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:17:00","slug":"nirvana-again-defeats-child-pornography-lawsuit-over-nevermind-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96693","title":{"rendered":"Nirvana again defeats child pornography lawsuit over \u2018Nevermind\u2019 cover"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A federal judge again threw out a lawsuit by a man who accused iconic grunge rock band Nirvana of distributing child pornography by using a photograph of him as a naked, swimming baby on the cover of its breakthrough 1991 album \u201cNevermind.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Fernando Olguin\u00a0tossed out the lawsuit, opens new tab\u00a0filed by plaintiff Spencer Elden for a second time after finding that no reasonable jury would consider the picture pornographic.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther than the fact that plaintiff was nude on the album cover,\u201d nothing \u201ccomes close to bringing the image within the ambit of the child pornography statute,\u201d Olguin said.<\/p>\n

Attorneys for Elden did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Nirvana\u2019s attorney Bert Deixler said they were \u201cdelighted that the court has ended this meritless case and freed our creative clients of the stigma of false allegations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The defendants included surviving Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, late lead singer Kurt Cobain\u2019s widow Courtney Love and photographer Kirk Weddle.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit stemmed from Nirvana\u2019s use of a photo taken by Weddle at the Pasadena Aquatic Center in California that depicted Elden swimming naked toward a dollar bill on a fishhook. Elden, now 34, first\u00a0sued the band\u00a0and its label Universal Music Group\u00a0(UMG.AS), opens new tab\u00a0in 2021, accusing them of sexually exploiting him through his depiction on the cover and causing him continuing personal harm.<\/p>\n

Olguin\u00a0dismissed the case, opens new tab\u00a0in 2022 after finding Elden\u2019s claims were time-barred without addressing the substance of his allegations. The 9th Circuit\u00a0reversed that decision\u00a0in 2023.<\/p>\n

Olguin determined on Tuesday that the image could not be considered child pornography, comparing it instead to a \u201cfamily photo of a nude child bathing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"NirvanaA federal judge again threw out a lawsuit by a man who accused iconic grunge rock band Nirvana of distributing child pornography by using a photograph of him as a naked, swimming baby on the cover of its breakthrough 1991 album “Nevermind.”<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9696,1910,1377,9697,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-child-pornography","category-international","category-music","category-nirvana","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}