deep thoughts @ 07 May 2008 11:24 am by bigfish
It’s official. Our ads for Hacking: The Art of Exploitation have been officially banned by Google Adwords. Is this yet another example of the chilling effect of the DMCA?
Here’s the gist of what they had to say in response to my explanation that this is a book about how exploits work, with a link to our website:
Hello William, Thank you for your email. I understand that you are concerned that your ad was disapproved for Unacceptable Content-Hacking when you trying to sell the book through your ad campaign. I would like to inform you that we monitor instructions or equipment to illegally access or tamper with software, servers, or websites. The book that is being sold provides instructions for hackers. Google believes strongly in freedom of expression and therefore offers broad access to content across the web without censoring search results. Please note that the decisions we make concerning advertising in no way affect the search results we deliver. Please note that both your ad and keywords have been suspended at this time.
[...] Go to the author’s original blog: Banned by Google Adwords — DMCA at work [...]
[...] UPDATED: Read the latest here. [...]
Who cares ? Hacking:The Art Of Exploitation is 26th on the “Most Wished For Books” on Amazon .
http://www.amazon.com/gp/most-wished-for/books/3839/ref=pd_mw_pg_2?ie=UTF8&pg=2
Yup, they did the same thing to me. So much for “freedom of expression”. I guess you can’t advertise any book with “hack” in the title, which eliminates a ton of security computer books. Maybe those folks at Google should pick up a book once in awhile!