I can't really contribute anything to the discussion about the image and rights associated with it, but since I have to say I probably never would have guessed

I can't really contribute anything to the discussion about the image and rights associated with it, but since I have to say I probably never would have guessed that one of my favorite bands ever would show up on HN, I guess I'm going to comment anyway. :) This was probably the first album that made me consider album art as real works of art. I still love Joy Division's music today and I will never forget this album cover and what I thought when I bought the album (I was a little late to discover Joy Division while Ian Curtis was alive, having discovered them through New Order around 1983 or so). Being interested in Astrophysics (as a lay person) and I believe I read that the band referred to this as "the death of a star" at the time. Love the imagery associated with that. Great album, great cover art, and great band, I really wish Ian Curtis could have graced us with more from his fantastic mind, I don't think I've ever experienced so much fantastic imagery from any other lyricist. EDIT: Oh, I forgot, the original CD insert that had this image on it wasn't simple paper as I recall, it was a sort of rough paper (don't know how else to describe it) with the image on it and you could feel the bumps of the lines. I think it was that, more than even the image by itself, the two together, which really fascinated me. I wish I would have kept that edition of the CD, it was an expensive import at the time and quite original, but I went through a few CD purges back in the 90's and that was a casualty of one of them. :( Oh well. I really wish I would have gotten the vinyl and kept that, but CD's were all the rage back then.