YouTube isn't the one sending these takedown notices. People send the takedown notices to YouTube, and then they take required action afterwards.
Presumably, people who signed an agreement would not send takedown requests. As you mention, there are cases where this does sometimes mistakenly happen, like if someone is being represented by some agency or firm and they don't realize the content is part of the agreement, but it should be disputable in those cases, and usually will get resolved.
(It's true that sometimes it takes too long for those cases to get properly resolved, but that's a separate thing. I'm definitely not saying IP management on YouTube is perfect - there's plenty of abuse and errors in the copyright system. This just isn't one of those situations.)
Re:Ask HN: How to Contact YouTube?
by httpsterio on Saturday April 24, 2021 @05:52AM
(#26923673)
His friends wouldn't obviously strike their own videos on the clip channel. Or the service would've provided his friends with the clips and they could upload them to their own channels.
Wait a minute. How would youtube know if he signed an agreement or not? Even if he did sign them youtube would have closed down the channel.
We have seen this before with more legimate channels and I highly doubt an agreement would have mattered.