Spencer Elden, 30, whose childhood photo was used to design the cover of Nirvana's Nevermind, is suing the band.

The famous picture shows a naked baby in the pool.

He seems to be swimming underwater to a dollar bill hooked on a fishhook.

The plaintiff claims that the photo is child pornography.

As noted by Variety, non-sexual images of naked babies are usually not considered pornography by law, but Elden's lawyer Robert Lewis believes that the presence of a banknote in the frame makes a child "look like a sex worker."

“The Defendants deliberately used child pornography featuring Spencer for commercial purposes and exploited the shocking nature of the image to promote themselves and their music at his expense,” the statement said.

The plaintiff emphasizes that the image was used “as a key element of the album's promotion scheme”.

"(Similar schemes. -

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) were often used in the music industry to gain attention: children portrayed in a sexually provocative manner appeared on album covers in order to gain notoriety, stimulate sales, and attract media and critical attention," the claim.

The statement also mentions other cases where images of controversial content were used for the covers of music albums.

Examples include the Scorpions Virgin Killer album featuring a naked 10-year-old girl, the Blind Faith disc of the band of the same name (topless girl on the cover) and the Van Halen album Balance.

The latter used the image of two naked preschool Siamese twins to illustrate their disc.

"When developing the concept and creating this image (authors -

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) followed the path of previous controversial campaigns that used explicit images of children or overt child pornography to promote music," the lawsuit reads.

The accusation is directed at everyone who is in one way or another connected with the release of the Nevermind album.

Defendants include former band members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, Kurt Cobain's widow Courtney Love, his estate manager, photographer Kirk Weddle and others, as well as a number of record companies that have ever distributed the disc. 

Also named as the accused is former Nirvana drummer Chad Channing, who left the band before the start of work on the album Nevermind.

Each Spencer Elden requires compensation in the amount of at least $ 150,000.

The lawsuit says that several dozen pictures of Elden were taken during the photo shoot.

Of these, Kurt Cobain personally chose this particular shot.

“Weddle shot a series of candid photos of Spencer nude. To make the album cover elicit an instinctive sexual response from the viewer, Weddle provoked Spencer's gag reflex, and then placed the child under water in poses that accentuated his naked genitals. Fischer bought hooks from a fishing store to complement the scene. In a short time, at least one or more film cartridges were developed, on which 40 to 50 different photographs of Spencer were captured. Cobain chose a shot in which Spencer - like a sex worker - reaches for a dollar bill hanging on a hook in front of him. At the same time, he is completely naked, and his genitals are on display, ”the statement said.

The lawsuit also cites an excerpt from the book Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana by writer Michael Azerrad, which states that the record company wanted to use a different photograph, but Cobain insisted on this and offered only to cover the baby's genitals with a sticker that reads “If you it is insulting, then you must be a secret pedophile. "

The label declined and released the album with the artist's chosen cover.

Earlier, Spencer Elden's father said in an interview that he was paid $ 200 for the photo shoot.

The family did not attach much importance to the event, until three months later they saw a huge photo of the child on the street.

Later, one-year-old Spencer was sent a music album and a teddy bear.

Elden reproduced the famous photo on several occasions.

At the same time, he had never previously equated the picture that made him famous with pornography, and in 2016, in an interview with the New York Post, he said that he was glad to be a part of such a cult event, which, however, he did not even remember.

At the same time, Spencer talked about the controversial feelings that the picture evokes in him.

According to him, he feels famous, although in fact he did nothing for it.

However, Spencer believes he has been stripped of his well-deserved reward.

“It's hard not to get upset when you find out how much money was circulating there ... Going to a baseball game, I think, 'God, for sure, everyone in this stadium has seen my little penis for children.'

I feel as if I, as a person, have been deprived of some of my rights, ”Elden said in an interview.

According to him, earlier he tried to contact Grohl and Novoselic and settle the issue privately, but did not receive an answer from them.