I've been on YouTube since the beginning. In the early days I uploaded a short clip from a favorite movie but YouTube removed it. A bunch of other people downloaded it and kept re-uploading it until YouTube finally gave up. I guess their new tact is tougher. They threaten to delete your account now.
Not new at all. This 3 strike system has been in place since pretty much the beginning of the Content ID system.
Where would you host them?
Not perfect for everyone but for my commercial content, Vimeo has been a good choice in terms of presentation, storage, and cost.