The way ContentID is put to use may be the best interpretation of copyright. You get to reuse someone's work and the original author gets paid. There are some false flags reported with it but it's hard to say how many are due to actual violations (when you legally license a song from me but you didn't know I illegally sampled Taylor Swift and so you go complain about YouTube when your video is demonitized). I heard the bigger issue is false DMCA takedowns by shady companies who don't participate in Content ID...

I though that false DMCA takedowns were punished quite heavily ??

Well if the victim is in another country or an average person without a lawyer what can be done?

Then it's that country that starts legal pursuits against them ? The average person only has to complain to the authorities, they don't need to sue the company, don't they ?

- YouTube is in US

- US company false DMCA's your video

- you are in Nigeria for example, whom do you complain?

- YouTube subject to US laws and must comply, while you can't do much

- YouTube probs doesn't have much incentive to investigate or sue false DMCA

If that becomes an issue, you can just stop using platforms like YouTube.