The man who appeared on the 1991 cover of Nirvana's breakout album, Nevermind, has just lost his child pornography lawsuit after he refiled his suit against the band when it was dismissed.
Spencer Elden, who is now 31, appeared completely naked as a baby for the 90s grunge band's album cover. He initially filed a lawsuit against the band's surviving members, the late-Kurt Cobain's estate, numerous record labels, and photographer Kirk Weddle. Elden claims neither he nor his guardians consented to his image being used, Billboard reports.
The plaintiff also claimed that the album cover is in violation of child pornography regulations, asserting that the naked image of him in a pool as an infant satisfies the legal definition of a sexualized image of a minor.
However the judge in the lawsuit, US District Judge Fernando Olguin, ruled that the lawsuit was filed too late as the statute of limitations for issues such as this are 10 years - essentially, Elden is 21 years too late.
In the court filings, obtained by Billboard, Judge Olguin remarked: "Because it is undisputed that plaintiff did not file his complaint within ten years after he discovered a violation that could form the basis for his [child pornography] claim, the court concludes that his claim is untimely."
The Judge's ruling seemed to reflect the sentiments of lawyers for Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, Weddle, UMG Recordings, and Courtney Love (executor of Kurt Cobain's estate), who have previously argued that: "[Elden's] willingness to associate himself with the cover over the years — such as selling autographed copies of the cover and at one point recreating the photograph as an adult for a paying gig — proved he didn’t suffer any damages." per JOE.
Elden, who was fourth months old at the time the image was taken, was photographed by his dad's friend, Weddle, after the photographer offered the infant's parents $200 to plunge him into the water at Pasadena Aquatic Center in California.
Since then, Elden has profited many times off the image, calling himself the 'Nirvana baby' - facts that were brought up in the lawsuit by the defendants' legal team.
People have been left confused after Elden's opinion on the album cover have changed drastically throughout the past three decades, despite maintaining during the lawsuit that the image has caused him "extreme and permanent emotional distress," per The Guardian.
In fact, in 2015, Elden told the paper that the cover has "always been a positive thing and opened doors for me." Then, a year later, he told GQ Australia that he was "p****d off" at the images that he believes were rather "f****d up."
Some people have even taken to Twitter to call out Elden's apparent hypocrisy, with one person writing in several tweets: "Google Spencer Elden before the case gets thrown out [...] has trouble justifying the multiple times he's recreated the shot as an adult..."
The Tweet references a set of images of Elden recreating the album cover - that he deemed as having affected his "income earning capacity" - as an adult.
