> In one way, it reads, “if you break the law enough, we’ll disable your account. Naughty naughty!” But then when you look at how the system works, almost anyone can just claim they own a copyright with absolutely no proof which has massive implications to your account
There's a lot more at stake than a youtube account. This is true for your ISP as well. Anyone can send DMCA notices to your ISP saying that you've violated copyright with zero evidence. If you are accused multiple times the media industry insists that your ISP must permanently cancel your account and never allow you to have service again. So far, the courts agree with them. ISPs who don't do this are subject to billions in fines.
There are around a dozen lawsuits in the works right now against ISPs who the media industry claims have failed to permanently cancel the accounts of "repeat offenders".
It's insane that we've given anyone the ability to cut someone off from the internet (many people have very few options for ISPs) over unproven accusations alone. You don't get to go in front of a judge and defend yourself. They don't have to prove anything to anyone. They said you did it, so therefore you are guilty and can be cut off from the internet. Never mind that the same companies sending out DMCA notices have a long history of sending false and inaccurate DMCA notices (sometimes out of laziness, sometimes out of incompetence, sometimes to silence criticism and hurt would be competitors).
Naturally ISPs aren't happy about this and right now, they are mostly watching to see how all this plays out in the courts, but again so far the courts are going along with it. Expect to see ISPs increasingly crack down on this to avoid being liable for billions in penalties.