Google adsense banned author for Pirate Bay link

A self published author was banned from Google's adsense program after it was found he was using the torrent search site The Pirate Bay to distribute his work, linking to the content from the same site that Google's ads were appearing.

Cory Jackson, author of a book on Python programming, made it available on TPB as a gesture of thanks to the open source community for helping him so much over the years. However, Google didn't like its adverts (which earned him no more than a few dollars a month) appearing alongside Pirate Bay links and banned him from the scheme.

Due to a public outcry from a few tech sites, Mr Jackson was eventually reinstated after he removed the original torrent links. Perhaps pushing his luck in some senses, he's now re-linked to the torrent file – not to the Pirate Bay directly – in a hope that he'll be able to continue to have both Google ads and a link to his torrentable book.

Not everyone agrees with this though. Mr Jackson said that some of the comments he'd received about the incident, suggested that he should have seen this coming since sites like TPB were “bastions of piracy.” As he succinctly points out however, “Just because other people post copyrighted material on there doesn't mean they are wholly “evil”. They are simply tools, much like a knife. It can be used for good or bad purposes, but in and of itself, it is only a device to be used.” The fact that his innocent book was the subject matter being linked to backs up his point.

KitGuru Says: What do you guys think? Should Google have the right to remove adverts from sites that link to The Pirate Bay, regardless of the content being linked to? Or should we consider torrent sites a tool like Mr Jackson suggests? Sound off in the comments below or on the KG Facebook page.

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