[anonymousab]

> So in order to be safe from lawsuits, publishers would have to go back to directly contracting with advertisers for every ad.

Or they would be forced to seek agreements with ad networks to cover such faults. Insurance, in some form.

[tempestn]

Right. I actually considered that when writing the post, then didn't end up mentioning it. I suppose that's possible, although I find it unlikely that large ad networks would indemnify small publishers in that way. Perhaps if they felt they had no alternative though.