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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →A federal judge ruled for Nirvana and the other defendants in Spencer Elden’s lawsuit over the naked-baby image on the Nevermind cover, dismissing the case with prejudice on September 30, 2025. Elden’s lawyers announced an appeal the next day. An indexed docket records briefing in that appeal through January 29, 2026, but the available information does not establish whether the Ninth Circuit has since issued a decision.
What the lawsuit alleged
Elden was four months old when he was photographed in a pool for the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind, released in September 1991. The image shows the infant reaching toward a superimposed dollar bill attached to a fishhook. In 2021, Elden sued the band and other parties, alleging that the image constituted child pornography and asserting a federal civil claim for personal injury. Those were allegations in a civil lawsuit, not a criminal finding. The Ninth Circuit’s 2023 opinion reported that more than 30 million copies of the album had been sold by then. Ninth Circuit opinion, December 21, 2023.
What each court decided
| Stage | Question before the court | Decision and effect |
|---|---|---|
| Earlier district-court ruling | Whether the case could proceed given the statute of limitations. | The district court initially dismissed the case as time-barred; the Ninth Circuit later reversed that dismissal and sent the case back. The earlier ruling did not decide whether the cover legally qualified as child pornography. Ninth Circuit opinion, December 21, 2023. |
| Ninth Circuit, December 21, 2023 | Whether Elden’s claim was untimely. | The panel held that alleged republication within the statutory period could constitute a new personal injury for timeliness purposes, assuming the image qualified as child pornography. It reversed and remanded. The panel expressly said the image’s legal status was not at issue in that appeal. Ninth Circuit opinion, December 21, 2023. |
| District court, September 30, 2025 | Whether the claim could succeed on the merits after the case returned to district court. | Judge Fernando M. Olguin granted summary judgment to Nirvana and the other defendants and dismissed the action with prejudice. District-court docket and order. |
| Ninth Circuit appeal 25-6289 | Appeal of the 2025 judgment. | Elden’s lawyers announced he would appeal. An indexed docket records briefing, including a reply brief filed January 29, 2026; the later outcome is not established here. Indexed appeal docket, case 25-6289. |
Why the 2023 ruling did not decide whether the cover was child pornography
The Ninth Circuit addressed the time limit for bringing Elden’s civil claim, not whether the image satisfied the legal definition of child pornography. It explained that, if the image qualified, alleged republication within the relevant period could amount to a new injury for limitations purposes. The panel was explicit: “The question whether the Nevermind album cover meets the definition of child pornography is not at issue in this appeal.” Ninth Circuit opinion, December 21, 2023.
The opinion discussed a 2021 re-release as one of the alleged republications. That reference formed part of the court’s timeliness analysis; it was not a ruling that the image was unlawful.
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Why Nirvana prevailed in 2025
After the case returned to the district court, Judge Olguin granted the defendants’ summary-judgment motion and dismissed the action with prejudice. The ruling resolved the case in the defendants’ favor at the district-court level. The order is the primary source for the court’s analysis and judgment. District-court docket and order.
In a public account of the ruling, defendants’ counsel said the judge found the cover “unequivocally non-sexual.” That phrase is counsel’s characterization, rather than a quotation attributed here to the court’s order. Defendants’ counsel’s account.
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Is Spencer Elden still appealing?
Elden’s lawyers said on October 1, 2025, that they disagreed with the judgment and would appeal. Marsh Law Firm statement, October 1, 2025. An indexed listing for Ninth Circuit appeal 25-6289 shows briefing through January 29, 2026, but does not establish a later disposition. Indexed appeal docket, case 25-6289. Accordingly, the district-court result is clear, while the appeal’s current status and outcome are not established by those records.
A separate Ninth Circuit docket, case 25-6984, records a dismissal as frivolous on April 24, 2026, after denial of a motion to proceed in forma pauperis. That is a different appeal and should not be mistaken for the disposition of case 25-6289. Separate indexed appeal docket, case 25-6984.
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