Slipknot have sued a cyber-squatter they claim is using the ‘slipknot.com’ domain in an effort to reclaim the site after 24 years.
As reported by Billboard, the band filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday (October 15) in which they allege an anonymous individual has been in control of the URL since 2001 and has been using it to advertise counterfeit merchandise for the band.
The band claim that they have been unable to use the domain in the intervening years and have instead hosted their online store at slipknot1.com.
Slipknot’s lawyer Craig Reilly has said: “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.”
“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,” Reilly added.
The suit has been filed under the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act 1999, and the band are seeking ownership of the site, as well as unspecified damages.
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Billboard note that the cyber-squatter remains anonymous, but they do own a post office box in the Cayman Islands.
Elsewhere, new Slipknot drummer Eloy Casagrande recently revealed that the band are working on new music. “We are cooking, we are doing some new music, for sure,” he said.
The band have yet to release any new material since 2022’s ‘The End So Far’, though they teased a new song ‘Long May You Die’, recorded shortly after Casagrande joined in early 2024. Nothing has come out of that tease so far.
In May, guitarist Jim Root said that he had completed “six arrangements” for a new album, despite previously claiming that he had “nearly zero inspiration”.
Speaking to NME back in December, percussionist and overall band mastermind Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan gave us an update on ‘Look Outside Your Window’, the long-awaited lost album from Slipknot. The album had been expected to arrive sometime this year.
In other news, the band released a 25th anniversary reissue of their self-titled debut album in September, which included previously unheard demos, new artwork and unseen images from the band’s archives.
They’re also reportedly selling their music catalogue for $120million to HarbourView Equity Partners, a deal that will cover ownership rights to their publishing and master recording royalties, and the house in Iowa they and their fans destroyed in the video for ‘Duality’ is going up for auction.
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