I'm my only source. I run a sub-network on YouTube and don't have a ContentID account. I've tried. Your friend is free to apply, just temper his hopes of receiving a reply, because it won't happen.
No, it's not a screw the little guy issue. ContentID is a legal pandoras box. By entering content into it you are claiming the legal right to that content whether for distribution or ownership. No company worth their salt is going to knowingly and thus illegally claim to own something they don't own. Individuals will though. A foolish internet troll could in theory go as far as intentionally taking down someones channel through Content matches and subsequent manually entered DMCA takedowns. It would cripple YouTube in a matter of hours because there are a lot of trolls out there.
