The BBC reports this morning that YouTube is being sued by … er … the Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment Corporation of Ohio. Otherwise known as UTUBE, and resident at www.utube.com since 1998.

Our tube and pipe machinery friends, established in 1985, are slightly miffed at the sudden increase in traffic since the YouTube explosion which has, apparently, caused them to reasses their hosting arrangements five times.

Regardless of what this says about their erstwhile host provider, I wonder whether legal action was strictly necessary. UTUBE wants YouTube to either cease operating (yeah right) or pay for UTUBE to renew its online presence. YouTube’s not exactly short of cash (or at least Google stock) these days. And one would have thought a freebie Google Adwords campaign could have worked wonders for UTUBE’s business.

YouTube has not, according to the Beeb, yet made itself available for comment. But as and when they do, I’d be interested to hear if the chaps from Ohio suggested discussing things over a coffee before they called in the lawyers.

Contrast this with the good natured way in which Cameron M Semmens handled the webcameron.com / .org confusion. It is, as the great Bob Hoskins once said, good to talk.

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