by After 24 years, Slipknot have moved to sue the cyber-squatter behind slipknot.com, who appears to have used the URL to sell counterfeit merchandise.
The metal band filed a federal lawsuit on October 15th, bringing claims against the anonymous host under the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. The 1999 federal statute allows individuals to reclaim domain names through litigation.
Therefore, the band is seeking ownership of slipknot.com, as well as financial damages due to the unfair competition and lost sales to the fake host. Allegedly, the site has also been profiting off the band’s name through pay-per-click ad links.
Their lawsuit also claimed that when you click Slipknot Merchandise and follow through to the first ad, the results page shows counterfeit merchandise. Interestingly, the cyber-squatter owns a post office box in the Cayman Islands.
Slipknot’s lawyer, Craig Reilly, has summed up the issue, writing, “The domain name was registered in an effort to profit off of plaintiff’s goodwill and to trick unsuspecting visitors — under the impression they are visiting a website owned, operated or affiliated with plaintiff — into clicking on web searches and other sponsored links.”
As the ‘Duality’ singers have been unable to use this domain, they have taken to hosting its store on the URL slipknot1.com. The band are hoping to move over to the domain that has been unavailable to them for almost a quarter of a century.
Recently, the masked musicians have shared that they have been working on new music. Drummer Eloy Casagrande recently revealed, “We are cooking, we are doing some new music, for sure. So, we have a lot of material right now. We just have to sit and put everything together, start jamming, and it’s happening.”
He aded, “It already happened. It’s gonna happen in the future. So new material is coming, for sure.” Their last release was 2022’s The End So Far, which was their seventh studio release.
