How Google profits from pirate software

Google is most people's favorite search engine. Millions use its Gmail web-based email service, and many are now using its new web browser, Chrome. Yet unlike other large corporations that dominate their sector of the IT market - Microsoft, for example - Google is more loved than hated. Its corporate motto of "don't be evil" makes Google seem like everyone's friend. But is it really? Google seems happy to carry ads for pirate software sites and purveyors of spyware and malware. That seems pretty evil to me.

Researching a software vendor a short while ago, I happened to click a link to a certain website. What shocked me was to find the following Google ad, prominently displayed on the page:

Four out of five links in the ad (which as far as I could tell from inspecting the page source code was a genuine AdSense link) claimed to provide ways to gain free, illegal use of commercial software. (The fourth, an ad offering to break Excel passwords, presumably appeared because it contained the keyword "crack".)

I didn't click on any of the links, but from what I have been told it would not be surprising if they had taken me to a site that tried to download malware to my computer. There is no profit in distributing pirate software, but spyware is big business these days and it seems that there is enough money involved to use advertising media such as Google to try to attract potential victims. As I learned recently, you can even get something nasty by clicking on a seemingly innocent ad for free WinRAR downloads.

Why does Google allow this? Is it really just about freedom of speech at any cost? Shouldn't these sites be starved of publicity, if they can't actually be shut down? I am sure there are many in the industry who know who the bad guys are, or who have the skills to develop the tools to find them. But instead of using this knowledge to put these people out of business, the industry profits by advertising these rogue sites and selling products that people wouldn't need if the malware problem didn't exist.

Some may claim that Tech-Pro is as bad as anyone else, since we recommend anti-virus and anti-spyware products ourselves. But we're powerless to do anything about the problem itself, and it's part of our mission to advise people on the best tools to use to keep their computers working in the real world.

On the other hand, an industry giant like Google really could make a difference. If it was serious about not being evil, it could start by refusing to carry ads for pirate software sites and other malware sources, and by excluding them from search results.

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