Nirvana respond to appeal in Nevermind baby case

completemusicupdate.com:

Nirvana and Universal Music have filed a response to the appeal in the ongoing legal battle over the famous artwork that appears on the album ‘Nevermind’.This litigation was instigated by Spencer Elden who, as a baby, appeared nude on the cover of Nirvana’s 1991 album.Despite having previously talked positively about appearing on the album artwork, in August 2021 Elden went legal, claiming that Nirvana and their label “knowingly produced, possessed, and advertised commercial child pornography depicting Spencer, and they knowingly received value in exchange for doing so”.Various arguments were presented by the defendants countering those claims, though the key legal argument was that Elden had left it too late to sue.

With the specific laws Nirvana et al are accused of violating, there is a ten year statute of limitations.That doesn’t mean that Elden would have had to sue within ten years of the photograph being taken, but – technically speaking – he should have gone legal within ten years of his eighteenth birthday.

So the deadline for filing the lawsuit was 2019.Elden’s lawyers said that that statute of limitations should be ignored because Nirvana and their label continue to distribute ‘Nevermind’ with Elden’s image on it, meaning that they continue to harm their client even today.However, last year the judge overseeing the case sided with Nirvana and ruled that the statute of limitations does apply.

As a result, he dismissed the lawsuit. Elden then filed an appeal with the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court.It’s that appeal that Nirvana and Universal responded to last week.