So a bunch of twenty year old movies (not actually by HBO for the most part, but whatever) that probably didn't sell even at the time.

My guess is that those companies didn't even bother to submit them to Content-ID, considering that Google had no problem detecting a bunch of copyright songs in those movies, for which they're paying royalties.

If submitting stuff to Content-ID is the "challenge" that alanlamm was talking about, then fine, color me unconcerned.

It's trivial to find obviously pirated content, and Google does not care (since it generates views). Being legally forced to react to complaints, and HBO not caring, are each separate from that. Which, admittedly, isn't what the original claim was, that HBO probably cares but that Google doesn't react. But Google doesn't care.