Nirvana ‘Nevermind’ artwork lawsuit dismissed

Case can be reopened

The lawsuit over Nirvana’s Nevermind artwork has been dismissed, after the plaintiff Spencer Elden’s team failed to oppose the Nirvana estate’s motion to dismiss it by the December 30th court-mandated deadline. In US District Court in Central California on Monday (Jan 3rd), Judge Fernando M. Olguin dismissed the case “with leave to amend.”

Elden’s team has until January 13th to refile a second complaint, which, according to Spin, the court said it will “grant defendants’ Motion and give plaintiff one last opportunity to amend his complaint.” If the deadline is made, Nirvana has until January 27th to refile their suit to dismiss.

“Failure to timely file a Second Amended Complaint shall result in this action being dismissed without prejudice for failure to prosecute and/or failure to comply with a court order,” the ruling states.

Elden, who was the newborn featured on Nirvana’s iconic Nevermind cover in 1991, filed the lawsuit in California in August, claiming the photo of the four month old baby swimming underwater in the nude with his genitalia exposed constitutes child pornography.

Late last month, the band sought to have it dismissed as they argued that Elden’s claims are “barred by the applicable statute of limitations” and that “Elden’s claim that the photograph on the Nevermind album cover is ‘child pornography’ is, on its face, not serious.”

In his suit, Elden says 40 to 50 different sexually graphic images of Elder were produced with a “goal of enhancing and increasing the commercial success of Nirvana, L.L.C.’s Nevermind album.” The suit accuses frontman Kurt Cobain of being “instrumental in selecting Spencer’s image for the album cover” and “chose the image depicting Spencer — like a sex worker— grabbing for a dollar bill that is positioned dangling from a fishhook in front of his nude body with his penis explicitly displayed.”

Cobain agreed to place a sticker strategically over his genitals after receiving pushback from others. The sticker read, “If you’re offended by this, you must be a closet pedophile.” However, the sticker was never incorporated into the album cover and left Elden fully exposed.

Elden is asking for $150k from each defendant, which includes photographer Kirk Weddle, Courtney Love, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, Universal Music Group, the David Geffen Co., Warner Music Group, and others responsible for the estate of the late Kurt Cobain.

The album, released in September 1991, celebrated its 30th anniversary with a multi format deluxe reissue in November. A total of 94 audio and video tracks, featuring 70 previously unreleased, are available across configurations ranging from Super Deluxe Editions to standard digital, 2 CD and single disc vinyl with bonus 7-inch. The set contains four newly remastered live shows that will be available in both vinyl (8LPs – 180-gram black vinyl – all in premium tip-on jackets — plus the new 7-inch – A-side: “Endless, Nameless” / B-side: “Even In His Youth” and “Aneurysm”) and 5 CDs plus Blu-ray featuring the complete Live in Amsterdam, Netherlands concert video newly remastered audio & video in HD Super Deluxe vinyl expected to ship on May 27, 2022.

 

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com