Axl Rose has asked Google to remove from the web a famously unflattering 2010 photo of him that has been reproduced for a notorious “Fat Axl” meme, several news outlets are reporting.
The request, first reported by the website TorrentFreak, involves a photo taken by Boris Minkevich of the Winnipeg Free Press during a January 2010 Guns N’ Roses performance from the Chinese Democracy World Tour at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Canada.
That photo triggered an Internet meme that mocks Rose’s physical appearance, such as an image of Rose with the message, “Remember the 80s? He ate them.”
Details of the request appeared on Harvard University’s Lumen Database’s DMCA archive this week, TorrentFreak said. The copyright claims were sent to Blogspot and GoogleUserContent on May 31, 2016 and demand the removal of pictures depicting of Rose.
Google has yet to remove the photos, TorrentFreak reported.
Rose’s demand centers on his claim that all professional photographers at Rose performances must sign a release which cedes copyright of their photographs to Rose.
In an interview with TorrentFreak, the Free Press’ Minkevich said he had no idea that Rose was trying to “cleanse the web” of his photo.
Nonetheless, Minkevich said that whoever is appropriating any of his photos are stealing them because they were lifted from the newspaper’s website.
“Either way the photo was stolen off our website with no permission granted by the Winnipeg Free Press,” he said.
Martha Ross provides celebrity commentary for the Bay Area News Group. Follow her at twitter.com/marthajross.
