The man who appeared as a naked baby on the cover of Nirvana’s smash, breakthrough album should have said “Nevermind” to the idea of filing a child-porn lawsuit over its iconic cover, some legal experts said Wednesday.
Elden’s lawyer James Marsh — who’s represented victims of child pornography for 16 years and currently has 26 such cases — slammed criticisms the suit was frivolous.
“We are dealing with real people, a real album, a real picture and a real cause of action, so the notion that this is frivolous … is sort of laughable because frivolous lawsuits are [cases where] you’ve got a hangnail or something,” Marsh told The Post.
“This is something that happened without his consent long before he was in a position of giving consent. This is also an album that was very controversial from the very first day,” Marsh said.
He attributed the suit’s backlash to “idol worship when it comes to famous people, bands and places.”
Marsh argued against claims that the suit was offensive to victims child pornography, saying that several of his own clients “have contacted us to say they feel for what Elden is going through and they fully support him in these efforts.”
As to accusations that the suit was a money grab, Marsh responded: “We are requesting the minimum statutory damages of the statute… we are entitled to $150,000 per defendant and Congress set that number.
“That is what Congress feels is the minimum amount of harm caused by defendants who engaged in this behavior.”
“The reality is a court will decide whether or not this is child pornography,” Marsh added. “A jury will be called to decide whether or not this qualifies as child exploitation and those are factual issues.”
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