Especially when youtube's early success was built on piracy. That continued for a long time even after Google's acquisition. Arguably still is a major contributor regardless of Content ID.
Yes, true. Gain traction through piracy to get to an immense size, let everyone use the service for free to grow even larger, introduce ads but only easily blockable ones, then slowly tighten the vise.
From my understanding, this is the exact model Crunchyroll used too to gain a virtual monopoly on anime streaming.
Between Youtube and PirateBay, who do you think has distributed more unauthorized copyrighted works?
I'd say Youtube has distributed unauthorized copyrighted works to FAR more people. Most people have never heard of PirateBay or have any idea what a torrent is.
Pirate Bay websites disappear all the time due to network uptime or just evading copyright cops. Youtube just sits there however, churning out its trove of pirated content and have the gall to throw ads on it.