funny thing how YouTube.com is losing money, but utube.com makes the millions

[polish_aristocrat]

well, I don't remember the details, but just mistyped it and it reminded me of the history of www.utube.com

this is from 2006

YouTube's popularity is proving to be a headache for a company with a similar Web address. Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment is suing the viral video site recently acquired by Google, according to a news report on WTOL-TV in Toledo, Ohio.

The lawsuit alleges that YouTube is confusingly similar to Universal Tube's UTube.com, which sells tube, pipe and rollforming machinery. Universal Tube said its Web site traffic jumped from 1,500 users a month to more than 2 million, paralyzing the site.

"This is an enormous expense and distraction for us. Contact with our customers has been disrupted, so I fear we have lost sales," Universal Tube owner Ralph Girkins said in a statement. "We have even been contacted by police in Australia accusing us of having child pornography on our Web site. I resent this personally and this confusion is hurting our business."

The lawsuit asks that YouTube stop using the youtube.com domain name or reimburse Universal Tube for the cost of establishing a new corporate identity.

2 years later they realized, they can just display ads/partner with a SE feed and they've been estimated to make high -6 or even 7 figs per year from that name with no effort totally legally


www.yuotube.com owners are walking on a very thin ice on the other hand, and I'm surprised google hasn't taken it from them yet...