The complaint for child pornography filed in late August by the man who appears baby and naked in a swimming pool on the cover of Nirvana’s legendary Nervermind album, was closed by a California judge on Monday, according to a court document.
The judge closed the case because the plaintiff, Spencer Elden, did not respond to arguments put forward by Nirvana’s lawyers in particular to argue that his action was unfounded, according to the decision dated Monday.
The judge gave a final deadline, January 13, 2022, for Spencer Elden to register a new complaint.
“We will file a second complaint very quickly. We are confident in the fact that Spencer will be able to move this file forward, ”reacted the plaintiff’s lawyer, Robert Lewis, contacted by AFP.
Photographed in 1991 at the age of four months, Spencer Elden appears naked in a swimming pool on Nevermind’s wallet, gazing squinting at a dollar bill hanging on a hook. With legendary tracks like Smells Like Teen Spirit, the album has sold over 30 million copies, becoming a rock reference.
At the end of August, a month before the 30th anniversary of the album’s release, Spencer Elden 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 exploitation. commercial child pornography images of his person ”.
The plaintiff, who said he never received financial compensation for the photo, claimed $ 150,000 in damages from each of the 15 people he was suing, including former members of Nirvana, the executor of Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love, and photographer Kirk Weddle.
In a note responding to the complaint, the latter notably argued that “Elden has spent three decades enjoying his fame as a self-proclaimed ‘baby Nirvana’.”
“He remade the photo in exchange for remunerations on numerous occasions; he got the title of the album “Nevermind” tattooed on his chest […] he autographed copies of the album cover to sell them on eBay and he used that link to try to hook up with women, ”they listed.