After more than two decades of having Slipknot.com held up by a cybersquatter, the Iowa-born metal band are fighting back.
According to Billboard, Slipknot has filed a lawsuit against the domain holder of slipknot.com, allegeing that they have been cybersquatting on the website since 2001. The band accuses the cybersquater of trademark infringement and unfair competition by displaying pay-for-click advertisements that take visiotrs to counterfeit merch.
The lawsuit was filed under the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, and the band is asing for the judge for an injunction that will allow them to reclaim the domain along with financial damages. Notablty, the band’s official web domain is Slipknot1.com.
In a statement, Slipknot’s lawyer Craig Reilly 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.”
Reilly added, “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.”
In other Slipknot news, the band’s new drummer, Eloy Casagrande, recently revealed that they have new music “cooking.”
In an interview with Drummer’s Review, Casgrande — who replaced previous Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg — shared that the band has been working on new music, but nothing is set in stone as of yet. “What I can tell you right now is that we are cooking, we are doing some new music, for sure. Yes, we are,” he said.
“Since I joined the band, we have been working on some new ideas. We keep exchanging guitar riffs, drum beats, so we are always doing something,” Casagrande added. “We had also some jam sessions. So, we have a lot of material right now. We just have to sit and put everything together, start jamming, and it’s happening. It already happened. It’s gonna happen in the future. So new material is coming, for sure.”
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