Sites Pull Kurt Cobain Suicide Note Apparel From Sale

If you ever needed evidence that the internet is as much a force of pointless unpleasantness and profiteering as it is a haven for shining examples of humanity, you need look no further than the saga of the webstore that tried to sell T-shirts and singlets emblazoned with Kurt Cobain's suicide note.

Bangkok-based fashionistas SpiceTeen, who primarily operate via online DIY marketplace and house of horrors Etsy, had released the objectively tasteless apparel on their store for $US14.99, while a long-sleeved variant appeared for a little more than $US25 on internet auction house eBay, at least before Reddit took notice and someone alerted the relevant gatekeepers to the offending items' presence.

The shirts and singlet have since been removed from both sites, since they pretty obviously contravene both marketplaces' community guidelines, although apparently 16 people took up the eBay offer before it was shut down.

As the Daily Mail reports, an Etsy spokesperson has confirmed that the items come under the umbrella of the site's list of prohibited items, which includes "items or listings that promote, support or glorify acts of violence or harm towards self or others", while an eBay representative asserted that "this item violates our Offensive Materials policy, which includes the promotion of human tragedy".

With that unpleasantness behind us, on the "authorised" Kurt Cobain merchandise side of things, fans can look forward to forthcoming documentary Montage Of Heck — the first such film to be created with the blessing of Cobain's family — set to air in the US on HBO later this year, which will also see a companion book published via Insight Editions featuring "a mixture of animation stills, rare photography and other treasures from Kurt Cobain's personal archive".