An indie film-making colleague, actually a professional stills shooter moving into DoP of motion work and way beyond my meagre skill set - received a copyright violation notice on his own original work on the basis that it infringed another work which had actually ripped off and reprocessed his stuff.

El Puesto - Arsenal De Guerra [Estudio 2012] - YouTube - Copied work.
Point Blank - Short Action Film - YouTube - The original.

should be easy to fix as he posted his work a year before the copycat.

I'm confused as to how short #2 has actor names and camera operators, who I presume can be verified, and a "soundtrack" that "fits", while short #1 doesn't seem to make much sense and has an unrelated soundtrack...

I see that some of the footage is definitely the same... but it's not really clear who "shot first"...

The copied work was a spoof, a work of a troll making trouble.

Perfect example of why you should always watermark your work before you post.