Maybe I misunderstood but Youtube asked for its identity if he wanted the channel back online because of the false DMCA notices.
And it is Youtube, most people will trust the website to do not disclose their identity like that. They may be wrong, but it is not that stupid if you are not fully informed of the risks.
Youtube is a safe-harbor under the DMCA because they facilitate this transaction. Here is the workflow:
1) You put something online.
2) They come and submit a DMCA takedown.
Little or no verification is required at this point, because the penalties for filing a false DMCA takedown are very limited and the penalties for not responding appropriately to a DMCA takedown are huge (eg. youtube can lose their safe-harbor status and become directly liable for your infringement.) The appropriate response to a DMCA takedown for a safe-harbor is in almost every case to take it down.
3) (Two?) weeks pass. You file an appeal or "counter-notice." YouTube can accept your appeal if it contains the necessary information, with no court oversight, at the end of the two weeks. They put your content back up, they forward your information to the DMCA claimant, and they are thus absolved of any direct liability and retain their safe-harbor status.
4) If the entity from (2) believes that you are indeed infringing, they now have your information and can file in a court of law, or as it was shown here, firebomb your house.
This is actually the way the process of DMCA law is written in my understanding.
Yes there is; you can create a Google account under the name "Walter Fiddler" (or whatever) and then that is your "real name" as far as Google Plus and YouTube are concerned. Just say "Yes" when asked whether you want to use it.
