I think what we will most likely do is suspend their certification and leave open the possibility of a return if adequate messures are taken on their part.
I think this is the good and sensible path to follow.
Then the question becomes what ARE adequate measures?
Simple. They write into their Affiliate Program T & C’s or words to the effect of:
If it is proven you utilise stolen content on any of the sites you use to promote our brands, your affiliate account will be be closed and all monies owed to date retained. You will also no longer be able to promote 888 and associated brands in the future.
It would also be good if they diverted some of their vast marketing resources into actually vetting the sites of webmasters who sign up to their program, before allowing them to actively earn with them.
The reason they are dragging their feet is because they themselves are very likely behind the scraping. However, unfortunately as we have no proof identifying Cassava as the registrant of any of the domains which use stolen content, we cannot say this publically.
Also another point Lou. They need to explain why they themselves are instructing their employees to spam blogs?
This activity needs to stop as well.