Nirvana defeats ‘Nevermind’ cover child pornography lawsuit, again
(Reuters) — A federal judge again threw out a lawsuit by a man who accused iconic grunge rock band Nirvana of distributing child pornography by using a photograph of him as a naked, swimming baby on the cover of its breakthrough 1991 album “Nevermind.”
U.S. District Judge Fernando Olguin tossed out the lawsuit filed by plaintiff Spencer Elden for a second time after finding that no reasonable jury would consider the picture 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,” Olguin said.
Attorneys for Elden did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Nirvana’s attorney Bert Deixler said they were “delighted that the court has ended this meritless case and freed our creative clients of the stigma of false allegations.”
The defendants included surviving Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, late lead singer Kurt Cobain’s widow Courtney Love and photographer Kirk Weddle.
The lawsuit stemmed from Nirvana’s use of a photo taken by Weddle at the Pasadena Aquatic Center in California that depicted Elden swimming naked toward a dollar bill on a fishhook. Elden, now 34, first sued the band and its label Universal Music Group in 2021, accusing them of sexually exploiting him through his depiction on the cover and causing him continuing personal harm.
Olguin dismissed the case in 2022 after finding Elden’s claims were time-barred without addressing the substance of his allegations. The 9th Circuit reversed that decision in 2023.
Olguin determined on Tuesday that the image could not be considered child pornography, comparing it instead to a “family photo of a nude child bathing.”
Bomb threat delays Munich Oktoberfest
BERLIN (NYT) — German authorities temporarily closed the Oktoberfest grounds in Munich on Wednesday because of a bomb threat they said was linked to an explosion in a residential area of the city.
Munich police said in a statement that firefighters and medical workers were initially called to a burning building at 4:40 a.m. Wednesday in the north of the city after neighbors reported hearing explosions. Those emergency responders found several fire-damaged vehicles in front of the house and “explosive traps” inside the building, along with a “nonspecific” bomb threat, police added.
Authorities said they believe the episode was linked to a domestic dispute. The bomb threat was written by a 57-year old German man, according to police. They said the man had shot his mother and daughter, then set his parents’ house on fire before driving to a nearby lake where he shot himself. The police did not name the man, saying only that he had died but that both women had survived.
The threat prompted a search of the Theresienwiese, the site where Oktoberfest takes place. That delayed the opening of the festival by several hours, as 500 officers and bomb-sniffing dogs scoured the grounds.
After several hours of searching, the city of Munich announced that nothing suspicious had been found and that the festival would reopen at 5:30 p.m.
Israel intercepts boats headed to Gaza with aid
(NYT) — Israel intercepted more than a dozen boats with activists from around the world who were part of a flotilla trying to bring humanitarian goods to the Gaza Strip and protest the war there, according to statements from organizers early on Thursday morning.
More than 150 activists from more than 20 countries had been detained, and about 30 boats are still making their way to Gaza, flotilla organizers said. Those boats are about 46 nautical miles from the enclave’s shores, the group said.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry had said Wednesday night that “several” vessels had been “safely stopped and that the passengers were being transferred to an Israeli port. The ministry posted a video that showed Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, one of the passengers, calmly engaging with a person wearing military gear.
The boats are part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, run by activists protesting Israel’s war in Gaza by trying to deliver food and other goods to the enclave, in defiance of a long-standing Israeli blockade. Parts of Gaza have been suffering from famine in recent months, according to a United Nations-backed panel of food experts, whose findings Israel has rejected.
Google says hackers are sending extortion emails to executives
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Alphabet’s Google said hackers are sending extortion emails to an unspecified number of executives, claiming to have stolen sensitive data from their Oracle business applications.
In a statement, Google said a group claiming affiliation with the ransomware gang cl0p was sending emails to “executives at numerous organizations claiming to have stolen sensitive data from their Oracle E-Business Suite.”
Google cautioned that it “does not currently have sufficient evidence to definitively assess the veracity of these claims.” Messages seeking comment from cl0p and Oracle were not immediately returned. Google described the email campaign as “high-volume.”