Maybe it's just me being stupid, but why would Google disable the AdSense accounts of legitimate publishers? Isn't the split between Google and Publisher something like 35%/65%? Disabling an account days before a payout may give Google a small chunk of money, an insignificant amount in the scheme of thing (if they don't return it to the advertisers as they're meant to) but it cuts off their revenue stream for future months. Google rely on publishers to make them their money. It just doesn't make any sense to block them, and therefore block themselves of any potential future earnings, just for the sake of a short term payout.
Taking a look at the website of the firm (Free Range Content) that has made the complaint, repost.us, this is just a website that appears to collate news articles from various other websites. It then enables people to repost the articles on their own websites. Might not be a breach of copyright, if they have the permission of the content owners, but it is a breach of AdSense's rules which require that all content on a publisher's website is original. It also seems to encourage the spread of these articles across other websites. Maybe the reason the site has had its advertising blocked is simply because of that. Nothing more, nothing less.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
