Pokermonger does bring up a good point, say PP decided that they no longer needed the affiliate program, they could just end it and stop paying everyone, and what recourse would we all have? Especially when they go public and are flush with a ton of cash, they could just advertise like crazy and decide to keep all of the earnings themselves. They will certainly be pressured by the investors to improve their bottom line.
On the flip side, by becoming a public company, it probably wouldn’t look to good for them to reneg on contracts they have made with all of their affiliates. By becoming a publicly traded company, they are actually self regulating, at least to the point where they have to answer to their investors, and in a public forum.
It will be intesting to see in the coming years how things shake out for affiliates, hopefully most of the programs will do the right thing and honor their agreement to pay lifetime revenue on players sent.