Recognizing that online service providers like Google are intermediaries and feasibly cannot (and should not) be required to make difficult determinations about the status of copyrights and user-posted content, the DMCA places the burden on copyright claimants asserting right—who are better positioned to know the facts relating to copyright ownership and infringement—to submit notifications of claimed infringement that contain certain specified elements and to attest to compliance with those requirements.
BUT, Google will have no problem making you invisible to the world if they so feel like it.
My wife’s business had a photo on her page flagged as “Spam”, and they put her business in what is essentially Google Jail. She wasn’t even sent an email, or received contact of any kind. Her business plummeted in a very short time. Only once she realized what had happened did she ask them why this happened and found out.
Google’s solution they offered? “Use some of our pre-approved stock images, there shouldn’t be a problem!”
She begrudgingly did. And then, the EXACT SAME THING HAPPENED the very next day! With the stock photos THEY provided!
Google has set up a landscape of visibility that only THEY can control, and you’re at their whim. No wonder people are trying their very best to game their system. Being delisted from Google should NOT affect your business so heavily, they’re not the fucking business police