Summary Paint.net's dev, Rick Brewster, finally secures the Paint.net domain after a 22-year struggle.
Despite this, I was always peeved that you couldn't actually download Paint.net from the website 'Paint.net'.
However, the people behind the Paint.net domain made a critical error, allowing the developer of the Paint.net app to finally secure the URL they had been fighting to get for years.
After 22 years of vying for it, he has finally managed to finagle the Paint.net URL from its previous owners.
As such, you'll soon be able to actually download Paint.net from 'Paint.net,' and the old GetPaint.net will point to the new one.
Summary Paint.net's dev, Rick Brewster, finally secures the Paint.net domain after a 22-year struggle.
The original owner's malicious redesign of the website triggered copyright and anti-squatting action, winning Brewster the domain.
The new Paint.net site will replace GetPaint.net; old links will be redirected during migration.
When I used Windows, Paint.net was my go-to app when I needed an image editor that was more powerful than Paint, but didn't need all the bells and whistles that GIMP or Photoshop had. Despite this, I was always peeved that you couldn't actually download Paint.net from the website 'Paint.net'. You had to go to the GetPaint.net website instead, which always felt weird.
For the past 22 years, the owners of the domain "Paint.net" refused to hand it over to the app's developer; at least, unless they paid a huge fee. However, the people behind the Paint.net domain made a critical error, allowing the developer of the Paint.net app to finally secure the URL they had been fighting to get for years.
The author of Paint.net finally secures the URL 'Paint.net'
It took over two decades of struggling
As spotted by Neowin, the man behind the app, Rick Brewster, posted on X about his newest acquisition. After 22 years of vying for it, he has finally managed to finagle the Paint.net URL from its previous owners. As such, you'll soon be able to actually download Paint.net from 'Paint.net,' and the old GetPaint.net will point to the new one.
So, how did Brewster manage it? Well, as he explains in the replies, the original owners of the website either didn't want to sell it to him or asked for "lots and lots and lots of money." After 22 years, in December 2025, the owners made a fatal mistake: they redesigned the Paint.net website to look like the app's download page, thereby profiting from Brewster's work through bad links and ads.
Brewster brought down the law against the owners, claiming that their actions constituted copyright infringement and domain squatting by profiting off someone else's work. Brewster won the case and, with the aid of a lawyer, secured the Paint.net domain for himself.
You can see Brewster's new acquisition over on the Paint.net website. At the time of writing, he's still moving everything over, so there's not a lot to see yet. However, once he's done, Paint.net will act as the main site, and GetPaint.net will become a redirect, because, as Brewster puts it, "There are 22 years of links out there that still need to work.
