A lawsuit over the iconic photo of a naked baby on the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind has been revived, over a year after it was previously dismissed. Spencer Elden, the now-adult pictured on the cover of the 1991 album, is suing the band, claiming the picture is child pornography. After a district court judge initially ruled the case was past the statute of limitations in September 2022, Pitchfork reports an appeals court ruled that “each republication†of the album could be “a new personal injury†on December 21. But the ruling had nothing to do with whether the album art is child pornography, as the three-judge panel clarified in a footnote, writing it’s “not at issue in this appeal.â€
Elden was photographed for the Nevermind cover at 4 months old, and his father was paid $200 by photographer Kirk Weddle, a friend. The now-32-year-old has had complicated feelings about the cover since, even re-creating it for the album’s 25th anniversary in 2016. “The wholesale worldwide commercial exploitation of a baby might be iconic, but that doesn’t make it right and certainly doesn’t make it legal,†a lawyer for Elden told Pitchfork of the appeal. A lawyer for Nirvana, meanwhile, said, “We will defend this meritless case with vigor and expect to prevail.â€