Not complying with DMCA doesn’t directly get into legal trouble. It’s not a crime and doesn’t create (itself) any civil liability.
What it does do is forfeit a safe harbor defense against copyright infringement liability. Basically, as long as you comply with take down requests, you can’t be sued for copyright infringement unless you knew about it.
It’s part of a quid pro quo with online services that publish user content.
Other publishers are liable for what they publish even if they didn’t know about it.
Without the DMCA, Google would be liable for all the piracy that happens on the site.
What it does do is forfeit a safe harbor defense against copyright infringement liability. Basically, as long as you comply with take down requests, you can’t be sued for copyright infringement unless you knew about it.
It’s part of a quid pro quo with online services that publish user content.
Other publishers are liable for what they publish even if they didn’t know about it.
Without the DMCA, Google would be liable for all the piracy that happens on the site.