• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, June 7, 2016

Guns 'N Roses frontman Axl Rose wants to send some unflattering photos taken during a 2010 concert down the memory hole.

He apparently enlisted copyright enforcer Web Sheriff to notify Google that varying sites displaying the photos -- which bloggers have paired with the phrase "Fat Axl Rose" -- infringe his copyright.

The pictures were taken by Winnipeg Free Press photographer Boris Minkevich -- which raises the obvious question why Web Sheriff would claim the musician owns the copyright.

Web Sheriff says that all "official" and "accredited" photographers at Axl Rose concerts sign away their copyright interest in any photos they take, according to Torrent Freak.

But Minkevich told Torrent Freak he doesn't remember whether he agreed to transfer the copyright in his photos to the celebrity.

For its part, Web Sheriff told Torrent Freak that even if Minkevich didn't assign a copyright to the musician, there would still be questions about whether he could "commercially exploit the resultant images of someone else’s show.”

It's worth noting that this isn't the first time someone has used questionable copyright claims to try to suppress material online.

Four years ago, actress Cindy Lee Garcia claimed a copyright interest in her performance in the controversial clip "Innocence of Muslims." She alleged that YouTube infringed her copyright by displaying the clip, and succeeded -- briefly -- in convincing a court to order the clip's removal. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted that order last year.

Before that, the group Medical Justice came up with a strategy to suppress criticism by asking new patients to assign their copyright interest in reviews to doctors. That way, when dissatisfied patients criticized doctors on online review forums, the doctors could threaten to sue the forum for copyright infringement, unless the sites took down the post. Medical Justice backed away from that approach after digital rights advocates challenged the company in court and at the Federal Trade Commission.

As for Axl Rose, his attempt to scrub the old photos hasn't yet met with success. Not only has Google so far refused to take down the pictures, but stories about his attempts to scrub them have appeared in outlets like Rolling Stone, the Guardianand Time.