[SpaceManiac]

Most YouTube copyright complaints are not actually DMCA complaints. The complainant is just asking YouTube nicely (whether that be manually, automated on their side, or automated on YouTube's side) and YouTube is complying of its own volition. 4J of their terms: "YouTube reserves the right to discontinue any aspect of the Service at any time."

[kevinwang]

I'm pretty sure that if YouTube did not "comply if its own volition" for these kinds of claims, they would be in violation of DMCA.

[cyphar]

ContentID doesn't operate through DMCA notices. People often conflate the two, but in the case of ContentID there are no legally mandated remedies like there are with DMCA notices.

[gboudrias]

Yes, but YouTube is being absolutely overzealous for no legal reason. Rather, I think it serves the double purpose of keeping the government (and regulation) very far away, while pandering to big content producers at the same time.