Yeah, well, the goddess google can get away with this with ease. But an affiliate program such as the ones we work for doesn’t have the funds google has, and it doesn’t have the massive number of affiliates google has. It also isn’t google and cannot control the damage affiliates can do to it’s reputation, nor does it have the massive legal department that is able to hammer out deals with the government.
When some of our affiliate programs re-enter the US, they had better toe the line, because I for one will not hesitate to bring suit against those who engage in thievery.
The reason they get away with it now is that it is just impossibly complicated and expensive for a US affiliate to deal with law suits given the jurisdictions the operate from.
But once they are licenced in the US there will be no such shelter, and there are some pretty clear laws here.
The reason the google judgement is significant is because it sets a precedent. A very important precedent for us affiliates.