Advertising links hurt SEO?

[GFTMarketer]

I'm working with a publisher who said that having DFA links on his site will hurt his SEO. He is taking my link and pointing it back to his site and then to mine.  Does that sound right to you?

[shandaman]

I am unsure what DFA stands for?

[GFTMarketer]

Doubleclick or Dart for Advertisers

[shandaman]

Well linking out to any site so long as it is relative is no big deal... I would just tell them to nofollow the link (you still get anchor text importance and traffic from the link and they lose nothing).