# Nirvana copyrights sold?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nirvana-copyrights-sold/419790>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 19, 2007, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nirvana-copyrights-sold/419790 "2007-09-19T21:28:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Thinktank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Thinktank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thinktank)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2007, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nirvana-copyrights-sold/419790/1 "2007-09-19T21:28:09Z")

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Hi,  
I’m not a diehard fan, but for awhile I had followed the legal battles between the former bandmates of Nirvana and Courtney; last I checked, Courtney Love was winning…

My question stems from a few songs I’ve heard on TV. Not too long ago there was a baseball video game that had “drain you” playing in the background.

Just today, I saw…err “Law and Order”?? not sure, looked like a legal drama show advertising the fact that they were using Nirvana’s music.

Kurt Cobain basically stood for being the “anti-rockstar” and was strongly opposed to “selling-out”.

So my question is, “what happened?” Did Courtney sell away the rights?

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**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2007, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nirvana-copyrights-sold/419790/2 "2007-09-19T22:22:23Z")

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Courtney sold a 25% stake in his Cobain’s song catalog to Primary Wave, a New York music publishing company in 2006.

ETA: They entered into an agreement to have a bunch of tunes on one of the _CSI_ shows.