Google may not voluntary provide information on the identity of its advertisers, but if you have a good case, then the company may tell you how to have the courts make them do it.
When Helen Grant, the British author of the forthcoming book Unlock Reality, found an AdWords link to a site called RealityUnlocked.com, on which could be downloaded an early draft of the book, she immediately contacted Google to identify the culprit who had blatantly violated her copyright. Google declined to identify the advertiser.
A little arm-twisting and Google told Grant how to get the High Court to force the company into revealing the offender’s identity. And so, she did. Grant took her case to the High Court, where the judge agreed with Google that that was indeed how it was done.
As reported by the Register/Out-law.com, the judge ordered that Google provide the identifying information at a cost to Grant. Word must have gotten to the proprietor of RealityUnlocked.com, as the site is currently unavailable.
Google has had a history of protecting the privacy of its users and clients. Last winter, Google was the lone holdout among competing search engines Yahoo! and MSN when subpoenaed by the US Dept. Justice to hand over reams of search information as part of a child pornography investigation. Google was later ordered by a federal court to turn over some, but not near the requested, information to the government.
UPDATE
David at Individuals Self Discovery Trust (ISDT) pinged me to clear up that Helen Grant is not the author of Unlock Reality, but is a trustee of ISDT, the publisher of the book.
| document.write(“Email murdok here.”)
Drag this 
Add to document.write(“Del.icio.us”) DiggThis Yahoo My Web
