In a recent article by Greg Sandoval on his CNET Media Maverick site, a Google responded to concerns about AdSense revenue funding pirate sites:
A Google spokesman said the company does all it can do under copyright law to protect filmmakers.
“We’ve long had in place a policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA),” the search engine said in a statement. “For AdSense publishers, if we receive a notice of infringement, we may disable their participation in AdSense in accordance with the DMCA process.”
The important thing to note here is the use of the word “may.” You see, in my experience Google doesn’t disable AdSense accounts even when confronted with the fact an AdSense client is actively engaged in film piracy. Take a look a this video I made documenting one of many examples: