The naked baby in a swimming pool that appears on the cover of Nirvana’s legendary “Nevermind” album has filed a new child pornography complaint in Los Angeles, relaunching the case following a judge filed his first complaint on a procedural matter .
• Read also: Nirvana sued for child pornography
• Read also: Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album baby complaint filed by judge
At the end of August 2021, Spencer Elden, now aged 30, had filed a complaint on the grounds that neither he nor his parents had given any authorization to use his image “and certainly not for the commercial exploitation of images at child pornography of his person ”. A federal provision allows victims of child pornography to seek damages from anyone who produces, distributes or owns images in which they appear.
The Los Angeles judge closed the case on Jan. 3 because the plaintiff failed to respond in a timely manner to arguments raised by Nirvana’s lawyers. The judge had, however, allowed Spencer Elden to file a new complaint within ten days, which he did on Wednesday.
On the cover of “Nevermind”, dating from 1991, he can be seen at the age of four months, swimming naked in a pool and appearing to want to catch a dollar hanging on a hook. With legendary tracks like “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, the album has sold over 30 million copies, becoming a rock reference.
The plaintiff, who says he never received financial compensation for the photo, seeks $ 150,000 in damages from the 17 people he is suing, including former members of Nirvana and Kurt Cobain’s executor, Courtney Love .
In their response to the initial complaint, defense lawyers notably argued that “Elden spent three decades enjoying his fame as the self-proclaimed + baby Nirvana +”.
“He remade the photo in exchange for remunerations on numerous occasions; he got the album title + Nevermind + tattooed on his chest (…) he autographed copies of the album cover to sell them on eBay and he used this link to try to pick up some women ”, they enumerated.
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