What if they're in another part of the world? This sort of copyright abuse makes me think that a video hosting system based in China or Russia could do pretty well here. Kind of like how the Pirate Bay keeps coming back, or how the likes of SciHub seem prepared for any of their domains being lost/hosting wrecked by journal publishers.

The MPAA and RIAA observe no borders. The Pirate Bay may keep popping up, but the founders have all paid a big price courtesy of these 2 organizations.

What about with people from those regions? Most problems with the Pirate Bay involved the founders being in countries friendly to the US, and a lot of problems with other shut down sites like Silk Road had the founders in the US itself.

Imagine if something from the government regime in those countries sponsored such a site. Would the US be willing to get in a massive geopolitical argument with Russia or China over some copyright disputes?

A video service hosted in Russia or China would have it's own problems. No freedom of the press in either country, and lots of issues with free speech. Any video critical of Putin or Xi Jinping would likely be taken down. Hard to operate a service with that kind of restriction.

Serious question: Why? Google might be subject to pressure since they also sell licensed media on the side, but what's to stop an independent from saying something along the lines of

"We're the host here, we're subject to DMCA safe harbor, either file a proper claim (to be evaluated by our counsel to avoid bogus complaints from a Mr. Russel, first name Jimmy) or get lost."

Even with the 10 days wait and counter-notice, this is strictly better than the nonsense system Youtube uses where people can have their content pulled down by trolls with no consequences.

Why couldn't a troll issue a "proper" (if fraudulent) DMCA request claiming to represent the copyright holder? It's just copying a template, filling in the blanks and sending the email.

Google, on the other hand, can't deny the takedown as long as all the requirements are met (AFAIK, IANAL), and besides, good luck paying for enough lawyer time when you're getting hundreds or thousands of requests per day.

Not sure but DMCA seems to affect many obscure download websites that have no part in licensed media sales.