Google's ContentID came as a result of Viacom's lawsuit in 2007. It's used to hang on to their "safe harbor" status. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Copyr

Google's ContentID came as a result of Viacom's lawsuit in 2007. It's used to hang on to their "safe harbor" status. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Copyright_Infringement_Liability_Limitation_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Copyright_Infringement_... One of the provisions is that the service provider isn't directly profiting from infringing content. A publisher would argue it's unfair for Google/Youtube to be considered a safe harbor if they make money from ad revenue between the time the infringing content is published and taken down by a DMCA claim. They'd also claim Google makes money using infringing content if users know that content is being hosted on Youtube.