Slipknot have filed a lawsuit against an alleged cybersquatter who’s been using the URL slipknot.com to advertise counterfeit merchandise for nearly a quarter-century, Billboard reports.
The masked metal veterans filed their lawsuit last Wednesday, claiming that an anonymous web operator has been undermining them by holding the slipknot.com domain since 2001. Slipknot, in turn, have had to host their webstore on slipknot1.com.
What We Know About the Slipknot Cybersquatter
There’s not much information available about the alleged cybersquatter. They own a post office box in the Cayman Islands and launched their website the same year that Slipknot released their platinum-selling sophomore album, Iowa.
“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,” Slipknot lawyer Craig Reilly wrote.
He continued: “A fan of plaintiff or someone who otherwise wanted to purchase authorized Slipknot merchandise would undoubtedly visit the slipknot.com website assuming it belonged to plaintiff and then purchase the slipknot merchandise linked to on the site, causing damages to plaintiff.”
What Kind of Counterfeit Items Are Sold on Slipknot.com?
The phony slipknot.com website is objectively bare-bones (and ugly). The main page directs users to click on various links including “Slipknot Get This,” “Best of Slipknot” and, of course, “Costume Masks.”
Slipknot claim in their lawsuit that the site leads users to buy counterfeit versions of the band’s signature masks, t-shirts, sweatshirts and more, thus hurting their official merch sales.
READ MORE: The Evolution of Slipknot’s Terrifying Masks Throughout the Years
The band’s lawsuit invokes the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act of 1999, which is designed to thwart such cybersquatters from registering and profiting off domain names that are identical or confusingly similar to registered trademarks.
We knew Slipknot sang “People = Shit,” but who knew they were talking about such nefarious online evildoers?
Every Slipknot Song Ranked
Push your fingers into your eyes.
Gallery Credit: Loudwire Staff
