No. But they are trying to make the rest of construct ads the way AdSense does, i.e., using javascript or no-follow so they don't pass PageRank. I'm okay with them nullifying PR. They can do whatever they want with that. I'm a little ticked that they expect me to do their work for them by adding javasacript or no-follow, though.
Ok, let's say somebody has just finished building a new website. How can he build link popularity (not for PR but to appear in the organic search results later)? Although this thread was opened by me, I am still asking myself: with the actual conditions... how a new webmaster would be able to promote his website avoiding to be penalized by google... I mean: if no link exchange (google possibly consider it a link buying attempt), how will that webmaster able to make his new website known? By only buying paid advertising at Adwords or other PPC systems? We all know that PPC is not a good alternative unless you have something unique (and expensive) to sell on your website or if your page promotes something original and later get organic links to your website.
Agreed let them nullify the PR passed to a paid link, so long as that is it, no penalties to either the advertiser or publisher...trouble is they will make LOTS of mistakes in judging paid links. This will have a truly negative affect on the web IMO.
google powns the web, they have mathematicians who can write alg and calculate like no other, no one will ever know why or how they go about their formula unless you are a genius with an IQ of 190 and work in their team.