Actually, I think it is a violation of the Adsense TOS to modify the code they generate for you in any way (including escaping quotes).

I've read responses from Google employees that say just this.

It's too bad that they changed the archive coding to require escapes.

rrr, you don't have to escape them if you use the single quotes. I am using double quotes because some other ad code I rotate in uses single quotes. But on the html page, the escapes don't show. There'd be no way to use google code in many other software packages if you didn't use escapes.

I understand that. Just passing on what I read from a Google employee.

If the adcode is modified in anyway, they consider it a violation of the TOS.

Now are they going to notice 99.9% of the time or is it as bad as other TOS violations? Probably not.

Just passing on what I've learned for those who might care :)

I think you get the money from the hits don't ya?:)

Not if people read and follow the directions I don't.

does this work if i have just installed the security plugin to 3.5.3 and not fully upgraded to 3.5.4 ? because i havent got the confidence to fully upgrade to 3.5.4

IN for later.

Don't know.

Oh well but you could make money outta it ;)

The answer is no, the archive was re-written in 3.5.4 to use $output, not echo statements, so this won't work in a patched 3.5.3. You could however upload the 3.5.4 archive files without upgrading the rest of the forum.