The publication appeared on extreme sports site EXPN.com, part of ESPN, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Inc. The photograph had been taken when the former daredevil attended ESPN's Action Sports and Music Awards in 2001.
Evel and his wife, Krystal Knievel, sued ESPN, contending that the photograph and caption were defamatory because they accused Evel of soliciting prostitution and implied that Krystal was a prostitute.
But the majority verdict by the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's ruling in ESPN's favour.
Judge A. Wallace Tashima wrote:
"Although the word 'pimp' may be reasonably capable of a defamatory meaning when read in isolation, we agree with the district court's assessment that 'the term loses its meaning when considered in the context presented here.'"
He continued:
"The term 'pimp' as used on the EXPN.com website was not intended as a criminal accusation, nor was it reasonably susceptible to such a literal interpretation. Ironically, it was most likely intended as a compliment."
Montana-based Evel Knievel, now 66, became famous in the 60s and 70s for stunts he performed successfully and also for those that went badly wrong. He set a world record in 1971 by jumping 19 cars and drew a crowd of 35,000 in the Los Angeles Coliseum when he launched from a ski jump over 50 cars stacked atop one another. But he also spent 30 days in a coma in 1968 when he failed to jump 151 feet across the fountains in front of Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas and risked his life in a failed attempt to clear the Snake River Canyon in Idaho.