Axl Rose Demands Google Remove 2010 "Fat Axl" Photo

(Image credit: Chiaki Nozu/Getty Images)

Axl Rose has asked Google to remove a famously unflattering 2010 photo of him, dubbed "Fat Axl" by the Internet, from the web entirely.

TorrentFreak has revealed that Rose has sent Google a Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice to Google claiming ownership of the image in question.

The photo was 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.

Google has yet to comply with Rose's demand, which is centered around a claim that all professional photographers at Axl Rose performances must sign a release which cedes copyright of their photographs to Rose.

Minkevich has said that those who have used the photo for anynumber of memes are stealing it, regardless of who is in the right in the dispute. “Either way the photo was stolen off our website with no permission granted by the Winnipeg Free Press,” he said.

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Jackson Maxwell

Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player (opens in new tab). Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder (opens in new tab) and Unrecorded (opens in new tab). Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.