Surviving members of the iconic grunge rock band Nirvana have won their court battle against a Los Angeles man whose nude baby picture was featured on the cover of the group’s smash hit 1991 album “Nevermind” after a judge tossed out his child porn lawsuit.
The suit was filed last year by Spencer Elden who at four months old was depicted totally naked and frontally exposed in a swimming pool with a dollar bill on a fishhook dangled in front of him, an image that he claimed made him a victim of sexual exploitation, accusing the band of essentially being child pornographers.
On Friday, US District Judge Fernando Olguin of Los Angeles said that the now 31-year-old Elden had waited to long to claim that he was sexually exploited by Nirvana, waiting for over ten years to take legal action after learning about the album cover.
The suit states that defendants including band members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, Courtney Love, the widow of deceased Nirvana lead singer Curt Cobain, record labels, and Kirk Weddle who took the photo at a Pasadena aquatic center in 1990, “knowingly produced, possessed, and advertised commercial child pornography depicting Spencer, and they knowingly received value in exchange for doing so…Despite this knowledge, defendants failed to take reasonable steps to protect Spencer and prevent his widespread sexual exploitation and image trafficking,” as reported by Deadline.
Elden contended that he met the statute of limitations because of factors including “lifelong damage” and the loss of “loss of enjoyment of life” that continued into his adulthood, despite having the album’s cover tattooed on his chest and having recreated the swimming pool picture to celebrate the 25th anniversary of “Nevermind” in 2016.
Nirvana's Nevermind baby recreates album cover 25 years on https://t.co/ZxGQR0hSkg pic.twitter.com/fchcsYcwyX
— Metal Hammer (@MetalHammer) September 26, 2016
“I said to the photographer, ‘Let’s do it naked.’ But he thought that would be weird, so I wore my swim shorts,” Alden said according the New York Post.
“In sum, plaintiff fails to allege that he knew of a violation that occurred while he was a minor or an injury that forms the basis of the claim within ten years of filing this action,” Judge Olguin wrote in his ruling dismissing the lawsuit.
The ruling prevents Elden – who has already filed three versions of the suit – from filing a fourth.
“We are pleased that this meritless case has been brought to a speedy final conclusion,” said Bert Deixler, an attorney for the defendants.
The band which has been given much credit for its contribution to the distinctive Seattle sound and grunge genre of rock and roll achieved its major commercial breakthrough with “Nevermind” which featured the singles “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “Lithium” and “Come as You Are,” hitting number one on the Billboard charts and drawing critical acclaim.
Nirvana would go on to release the follow-up album “In Utero” and be a fixture on MTV as well as performing live until the 1994 suicide of the troubled Cobain who shot himself in the head with a shotgun, becoming yet another one in a series of young casualties of rock and roll.
(Video: YouTube/Nirvana)
“Spencer intends to appeal this ruling. This ruling’s interpretation of the statute of limitations on Masha’s Law contravenes over fifteen years of well-settled precedent and the legislature’s intended purpose of the law,” lawyer Margaret Mabie who represents Elden told Rolling Stone, citing the federal statute on victims of child pornography. “Under this reading of the law, child pornography remedies vaporize once the victim in the contraband image turns 28 years old. Under this logic, any child pornography producer—such as Masha Allen’s original abuser—could simply wait out the clock and then re-distribute abusive material with impunity.”
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Chris Donaldson is an ordinary American who is concerned about rampant corruption as well as the ongoing attacks on our way of life by those who have contempt for our hard-earned freedoms. A Navy veteran, he has been a frequent contributor to conservative websites and resides in Florida.
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