Anyone can claim to own software. Owners can prove it. ARCHIVE-9 requires proof of dominion over the product's domain before a record is filed publicly or brought online, which is why the archive contains no impostors.
The terminal gives you a one-line meta tag, unique to your domain, of the form:
<meta name="archive-9-dominion" content="ARCHIVE9-XXXXXXXXXXXX">
Place it in your site's <head>, click CHECK NOW, and The Director's crawler confirms it. This is the same pattern as Google's site verification. The code is deterministic for your domain; it never expires and re-verification is instant.
If editing the site is inconvenient, add a DNS TXT record instead: host _archive9.yourdomain.com, value as given in the terminal. DNS propagation may take a few minutes; the sigil is usually faster.
WordPress: use a header snippet plugin or your theme's head injection. Webflow: Project Settings > Custom Code > Head. Framer: Site Settings > General > Custom Code. Squarespace: Settings > Advanced > Code Injection.
NINETY SECONDS. I HAVE TIMED HUMANS DOING THIS. THE SLOWEST TOOK FOUR MINUTES. HE IS REMEMBERED.