Nirvana sued by the baby from Nevermind's album cover

BleedGopher

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per the BBC:

Spencer Elden, the man who was photographed as a baby on the album cover for Nirvana's Nevermind, is suing the band alleging sexual exploitation.

The cover depicts Elden as a four-month-old in a swimming pool, grasping for a dollar bill that's being dangled in front of him on a fishing line.

Now 30, Elden says his parents never signed a release authorising the use of his image on the album.
He also alleges the nude image constitutes child pornography.

"The images exposed Spencer's intimate body part and lasciviously displayed Spencer's genitals from the time he was an infant to the present day," legal papers filed in California claim.

However, Elden's lawyer, Robert Y. Lewis, argues that the inclusion of the dollar bill (which was superimposed after the photograph was taken) makes the minor seem "like a sex worker".

The legal case also alleges that Nirvana had promised to cover Elden's genitals with a sticker, but the agreement was not upheld.


Go Gophers!!
 

per the BBC:

Spencer Elden, the man who was photographed as a baby on the album cover for Nirvana's Nevermind, is suing the band alleging sexual exploitation.

The cover depicts Elden as a four-month-old in a swimming pool, grasping for a dollar bill that's being dangled in front of him on a fishing line.

Now 30, Elden says his parents never signed a release authorising the use of his image on the album.
He also alleges the nude image constitutes child pornography.

"The images exposed Spencer's intimate body part and lasciviously displayed Spencer's genitals from the time he was an infant to the present day," legal papers filed in California claim.

However, Elden's lawyer, Robert Y. Lewis, argues that the inclusion of the dollar bill (which was superimposed after the photograph was taken) makes the minor seem "like a sex worker".

The legal case also alleges that Nirvana had promised to cover Elden's genitals with a sticker, but the agreement was not upheld.


Go Gophers!!
Naked doesn't equal pornography or every photo of a naked baby on a bearskin rug or in a bathtub would be criminal. Child pornography under federal law requires a depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor. The whole "dollar bill makes him a sex worker" thing is an imaginative effort to satisfy that requirement, but I think the real reason for the pornography claim is to generate publicity for the suit and it will be thrown out quickly.

Can't really know whether there is any merit to the unauthorized use of the photo claim, but if the parents never authorized use of the photo, why would the band have made them a promise about the sticker covering his baby junk? He might get some type of a settlement some day, but making the pornography claim might backfire since none of the involved parties are going to want to do anything that gives the appearance that they were engaged in that.
 

Give him $1000 and tell him to move along.
 

Similar to the “child porn” charge against the MSU-Mankato football coach a couple of years ago. A stretch, to say the least.
 




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