For the longest time, I have heard rumors about DMCA notices being given to the site that are totally fictitious, are submitted out of spite, or are just outright wrong. For the longest time, I didn't want to believe this, however recently, something has happened that has left me wondering how legitimate the DMCA process really is.
Get this… The other day, I received a DMCA takedown notice FOR MY OWN PRIVATE VIDEO!!! That's right!!! A PRIVATE HOME VIDEO that I MADE MYSELF was the target of a DMCA takedown request. Imagine that... Apparently, my own private videos are copyright of some studio? SHIT!! When did that happen?! When do I get paid for whatever studio it was that had my video taken down for having apparently purchased the rights to my video?
Maybe some website that charges a monthly subscription fee posted your video on their site and they wanted your video to be exclusive to their site so they had it taken down here. Obviously that was a fraudulent DMCA request. I wonder how many DMCA requests are legitimate or if they are even being verified? If some studio is selling your private video, you could sue them. Sharing is not illegal. If a neighbor invited you over to watch a pay-per-view event, there is nothing illegal about that. But if the neighbor charged you $20 to watch a pay-per-view event that he didn't own, then that would be illegal. That's like the Uber and Lyft and other taxi services. You can give someone a ride and even charge them for the gasoline and that is legal. But if you start a for-profit business out of driving people around, you must set up a business and have all sorts of licensing, liability, insurance, taxes, and other crap. That fraudulent DMCA request of your homemade video is like your neighbor taking your car without permission and using it to make money by driving people around town.