No, Title II of the DMCA does not create any obligations for anyone. It is not illegal to completely ignore these notices. Under copyright law, distributing co

No, Title II of the DMCA does not create any obligations for anyone. It is not illegal to completely ignore these notices. Under copyright law, distributing copies of someone's protected work without authorization is illegal. Many types of internet service providers, as part of fulfilling the service they offer, distribute copies of works on behalf of others. Web hosts serve files their customers have uploaded, video sites stream user uploads, discussion boards serve messages written by users, etc. Thus, an ISP may come to unknowingly distribute copyrighted works without authorization, and would be subject to lawsuits for doing so. The DMCA offers a way for these ISPs to avoid being sued despite having indeed infringed someone's exclusive rights under copyright law. If they register an agent with the copyright office, and follow a procedure for disabling and re-enabling access to materials they distribute based on certain notices, they then cannot be sued for having hosted that specific material in the past. The DMCA does not require that anyone register an agent and follow those procedures, it only offers a benefit if you choose to do so.