Maybe to limit the Warner and other companies' actions. They're trying to sue for obvious test files now. What are the chances that given unlimited access they wouldn't worry so much about verification of what's legal/what belongs to them?
It's a completely different thing if they reached the limit every single day, were rejected higher quotas and have a big queue of files to remove... But why didn't they say so?
Lastly, you might want to reread Sony Betamax, particularly the part about how a service capable of substantial non-infringing uses can be legal even when they know it is often used for infringement. Sure, you're probably not aware of those non-infringing uses because those people kept their files relatively private, rather than distributing them to all and sundry, but ignorance cannot be made into much of an argument. You seem to think of it as a "pirate site" and I doubt I can change your mind, no matter how many non-infringing users I could find. It's a hard point to make when the infringing uses were necessarily public and the non-infringing uses were almost all private.
Yes, I am aware that you could come back with better arguments than the statements you've made upthread that argue directly against Betamax, but I'll let you make your own. You're also entitled to think that Betamax was a bad ruling, if you like, but if that's the case I'll simply have to disagree. After the long history of hyperbolic comments from industry leaders about how every new mass-distribution technology would kill the industry, I would not like to see a future without the Betamax ruling.
[1] http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120223/15102217856/key-te...
Check out Popehat.com for a federal prosecutor (now in private practice, I think) explaining why the DMCA safe harbor doesn't even apply in criminal cases... but, even if it did, who cares? The DMCA safe harbor is an AND construction. You have to satisfy three tests: (a) not knowing about infringement yourself, (b) not benefiting financially from piracy, and (c) responding expeditiously to takedown notices.
As soon as the DoJ got MU's email, it was all over. They themselves not only used the system repeatedly for piracy (in far, far more documented instances than just 50 Cent and Louis Armstrong) but also paid bonuses to people they knew had been uploading DVD rips to the site --- paid bonuses that tracked those very uploads.
I disagree on with the conclusions this thread has come to about the DMCA safe harbor, but really... what are we arguing about here?
I'm not saying they've done nothing illegal, just that the argument over the notices isn't a particularly strong one. Like I said, there are much better arguments.
The indictment itself is hilarious. It just goes on & on & on.
There's no question that this is an uphill battle for them.