Nope, it's part of the agreement. The site is hosted for free, but there has to be a pop up and the banners have to be displayed. I don't know why you didn't see it before, it's been there all along.
I haven't been to that site for over a year because of what happened.
I can't stand it either. But I'm forced to go, as I'm a mod at the forums, lmao. At least I get the pleasure of pissing off the people and deleting their topics, lol.