Yeah, it seems that the HN crowd couldn't get it that a) the safe harbor provision is strict about it (it only says that the legal request is correctly-formed,

Yeah, it seems that the HN crowd couldn't get it that a) the safe harbor provision is strict about it (it only says that the legal request is correctly-formed, not that it is sane or even to be true*) and b) legally Google is also in a bad predicament. * Even if the complaint is patently false, precedent shows that the court decides on that matter. Even after Lenz vs Universal, it only asks for complainants to consider if the use is legal, it didn't really create safeguards that the OSPs can use to disregard a DMCA request.