'Nevermind' Cover Baby Spencer Elden Loses Lawsuit Against Nirvana

Spencer Elden has lost his lawsuit against Nirvana. Elden whose naked image as a baby appears on the cover of Nevermind had filed suit against Nirvana, alleging that the cover artwork constitutes child pornography. Pitchfork is reporting that the lawsuit has now been dismissed. 

Judge Fernando M. Olguin ruled in the U.S. District Court that the case was filed well past the statute of limitations (10 years) and dismissed the case with prejudice. 

Spencer Elden has now been barred from re-filing the suit. He can still submit an appeal.

The defendants in the suit included Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, Kurt Cobain's widow Courtney Love and photographer Kirk Weddle, alongside a collection of record labels. 

The dismissal of the case is now the second time that Elden has tried and failed to sue over the use of his image, following the dismissal of another suit filed by Elden in January. 

A section of the 35-page-long amended filing reads: "Although the image of Spencer on the Nevermind album cover was created over thirty years ago, during the ten years preceding the filing of this action and since…[the defendants] continued to knowingly possess, transport, reproduce, advertise, promote, present, distribute, provide, and obtain the commercial child pornography on the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind." The new filing had seen a reduction in the number of allegedly violated child pornography and exploitation statutes from eight to six and also referenced the recent 30th-anniversary editions of Nevermind. 

Elden, who is currently 31, was only four months old when the photographer, Weddle, paid his father $200 to photograph him for the Nevermind artwork. 

Elden has recreated the art several times in the past and has the word 'Nevermind' tattooed on his chest. 

Speaking with Vulture last October, about the initial lawsuit, Grohl commented, stating: “I don’t know that I can speak on it because I haven’t spent too much time thinking about it. I feel the same way most people do in that I have to disagree. That’s all I’ll say.” 

Grohl also pointed out that Elden has a Nevermind tattoo.