Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ Album Cover Child Porn Lawsuit Dismissed Again

A lawsuit over Nirvana‘s Nevermind album cover being considered child pornography has been dismissed again amid a legal battle that has gone on for years.

According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, on Tuesday, Sept. 30, U.S. District Judge Fernando Olguin dismissed the lawsuit filed by plaintiff Spencer Elden, alleging that the 1991 album cover is child pornography.

Olguin ruled that there was no evidence that would lead a reasonable jury to label the photograph as pornographic. 

“Other than the fact that plaintiff was nude on the album cover,” nothing “comes close to bringing the image within the ambit of the child pornography statute,” said Olguin. He compared the image to a “family photo of a nude child bathing.”

The judge also pointed out that Elden’s parents were present at the photoshoot, and that Elden has “embraced and financially benefited from being featured on the album cover” for many years.

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The album cover depicts Elden, now 32, when he was four months old, naked and swimming towards a dollar bill hooked on a fishing line.

Per the court documents, Elden claimed that the continued use of the image “caused, and continues to cause, [him] serious injury including, without limitation, physical, psychological, financial, and reputational damages.”

The defendants, which include Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, late singer Kurt Cobain‘s widow Courtney Love, and the album’s photographer, Kirk Weddle, meanwhile, argue that “the image is unequivocally non-sexual, it is not child pornography as a matter of law.” 

Elden previously sued Nirvana in August 2021, alleging child sexual exploitation and seeking $150,000 in damages and attorney fees, claiming that the album cover’s photograph led him to suffer “lifelong damages.” 

“Defendants used child pornography depicting Spencer as an essential element of a record promotion scheme commonly utilized in the music industry to get attention,” the complaint read, “wherein album covers posed children in a sexually provocative manner to gain notoriety, drive sales, and garner media attention, and critical reviews.”

The lawsuit was dismissed by a California judge the following January after Elden failed to respond to a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Nirvana and the other defendants. 

In September 2022, Judge Olguin declared Nirvana won the lawsuit on the basis that Elden waited too long to file. “Because it is undisputed that [Elden] did not file his complaint within 10 years after he discovered a violation… the court concludes that his claim is untimely,” the judge wrote, per Rolling Stone.

“Because plaintiff had an opportunity to address the deficiencies in his complaint regarding the statute of limitations, the court is persuaded that it would be futile to afford plaintiff a fourth opportunity to file an amended complaint.”

Per Reuters, in December 2023, a U.S. appeals court revived Elden’s suit, overturning a lower court’s decision that Elden waited too long to file the lawsuit. The reversal was based on Nirvana’s 2021 republication of the cover when re-releasing Nevermind.

The Sept. 30, 2025 dismissal is the last time that the lawsuit alleging child pornography can be dismissed.

Nevermind, which was nominated for the Best Alternative Music Album Grammy in 1992, launched Nirvana into stardom with songs “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Come as You Are.”