Safe harbour

In the United States it comes from Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and the European Union has its own equivalent. The bargain is straightforward. A platform hosting material other people uploaded avoids liability for infringement as long as it acts on valid takedown notices and keeps a policy for repeat infringers.

That one condition explains most of what creators experience as YouTube's copyright system: quick removals on a claim, the counter-notification route back, and strikes accumulating against an account. The platform is protecting its own legal position, which is why the process feels procedural and why it rarely tries to decide who is right.