That's all well and good if this case ever goes to court, which it almost certainly won't. Most service providers will pull down any content that's included in a takedown notice. The alternative is for each service provider to make a legal decision about each takedown notice. That won't happen. If they don't respond in good time, they risk their safe harbor status.
It's smarter (under the seriously f'ed up DCMA system) to pull it down and wait for a counter notice, at which point they put it back up, and they aren't responsible any more — the person filing the counter notice is responsible because a false counter claim counts as perjury.
At that point, the original issuer of the takedown notice can sue.
Of course, it almost never gets that far when the takedown notices are spurious, as in this case. That's what makes the DMCA such a bad idea — it's a perfect tool for censorship.
It's smarter (under the seriously f'ed up DCMA system) to pull it down and wait for a counter notice, at which point they put it back up, and they aren't responsible any more — the person filing the counter notice is responsible because a false counter claim counts as perjury.
At that point, the original issuer of the takedown notice can sue.
Of course, it almost never gets that far when the takedown notices are spurious, as in this case. That's what makes the DMCA such a bad idea — it's a perfect tool for censorship.