Photo Artis and Gossip

Courtney Love believes Kermit the Frog and his gang of Muppet friends “raped” the memory of her ex-husband Kurt Cobain — by bastardizing Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Bride Courtney Stodden — Look People, I’m All Real! [PHOTOS]” href=”http://artis-x.com/teen-bride-courtney-stodden-look-people-im-all-real-photos/”>Teen Spirit” in their 2011 movie … without her permission.

Courtney says she has the absolute power to approve or nix the use of Kurt’s music for commercial purposes, and she never gave the OK for the 2 companies to use the song for the 2011 Muppets movie.

But there’s another side to this … We’re told Courtney sold off half of her rights to Kurt’s music to a company called Primary Wave Music.  And there’s more … Courtney also gave Primary Wave the exclusive right to distribute Nirvana’s entire catalog.

As far as “Smells Like Teen Spirit” goes … not only did Primary Wave approve the use in the Muppet’s movie, they got permission from the two surviving Nirvana members — Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic.  And Dave is even in the movie.

But it’s not all that bad for Courtney.  We’re told a chunk of the profits from songs in the catalog go to Courtney and her daughter, Frances Bean.