Axl Rose is attempting to have an unflattering picture of him removed from the internet.
The image was taken in 2010 by photographer Boris Minkevich at a Guns N’ Roses show at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Canada, and has been widely used as an internet meme making fun of the vocalist’s bloated appearance.
The memes mainly centre on Rose’s hiring by AC/DC as a guest singer, replacing Brian Johnson who was ordered to stop touring or risk going deaf.
TorrentFreak report that Rose has filed a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notice, asking Google and other web firms to remove the photo from the web entirely.
The DMCA complaint sent to Google reads: “Copyright image of Axl Rose. Please be advised that no permission has been granted to publish the copyright image so we cannot direct you to an authorised example of it.”
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Although the photo was taken by Minkevich, Rose claims that he owns the copyright because he gets photographers to sign over copyright control of all images at all of his shows.
Asked by TorrentFreak whether he remembers signing such an agreement at the gig in question, Minkevich says he cannot recall. He adds that he had no idea Rose was “trying to cleanse the web” of the photograph.
As it stands, the image is still widely available online. According to Lumen, internet copyright authority Web Sheriff has issued more than 134,000 takedown orders in relation to pictures of Axl Rose online.
AC/DC remaining tour dates with Axl Rose 2016
Jun 09: Manchester Etihad Stadium, UK
Jun 12: Aarhus Ceres Park, Denmark
Aug 27: Greensboro Coliseum, NC
Aug 30: Ft Lauderdale BB&T Center, FL
Sep 01: Atlanta Phillips Arena, GA
Sep 04: Columbus Nationwide Arena, OH
Sep 06: Cleveland Quicken Loans Arena, OH
Sep 09: Detroit The Palace, MI
Sep 11: Buffalo First Niagara Center, NY
Sep 14: New York Madison Square Garden, NY
Sep 17: Washington Verizon Center, DC
Sep 20: Philadelphia Wells Fargo Center, PA
Guns N’ Roses Not In This Lifetime Tour 2016
Jun 23: Detroit Ford Field, MI
Jun 26: Landover FedExField, MD
Jun 29: Kansas City Arrowhead Stadium, MO
Jul 01: Chicago Soldier Field, IL
Jul 03: Chicago Soldier Field, IL
Jul 06: Cincinnati Paul Brown Stadium, OH
Jul 09: Nashville Nissan Stadium, TN
Jul 12: Pittsburgh Heinz Field, PA
Jul 14: Philadelphia Lincoln Financial Field, PA
Jul 16: Toronto Rogers Centre, ON
Jul 19: Foxborough Gillette Stadium, MA
Jul 20: Boston Foxborough Gillette Stadium, MA
Jul 23: East Rutherford MetLife Stadium, NY
Jul 24: New York East Rutherford MetLife Stadium, NY
Jul 27: Atlanta Georgia Dome, GA
Jul 29: Orlando Citrus Bowl, FL
Jul 31: New Orleans Mercedez Benz Superdome, LA
Aug 03: Arlington AT&T Stadium, TX
Aug 05: Houston NRG Park, TX
Aug 09: San Francisco AT&T Park, CA
Aug 12: Seattle CenturyLink Field, WA
Aug 15: Glendale University Of Phoenix Stadium, AZ
Aug 18: Los Angeles Dodger Stadium, CA
Aug 22: San Diego Qualcomm Stadium, CA
Stop being mean to Axl! Here's six really nice memes to redress the balance
