I am generally lurking and not posting, but I seem to have missed what I think is an important distinction in the consideration of ethics.

My take on ethics includes the "do no harm" commonly accepted "rule" as applied to most ethical debates. I do not believe that buying links is evil or unethical, nor do I believe that it is my responsibility to help any search engine detect what they do not have the ability to detect themselves. But if their stated objective is to detect and punish those that deceive them into granting ranking that is not based upon relevancy and I tell my clients that (even though I know they will eventually get caught and punished) that this act is okay, then I believe I would have harmed that client and it is thus unethical for me to do that.

It is totally ethical to intentionally do it to yourself if you knowingly accept the risk with full disclosure. It is unethical to do it to someone else that does not know better.

It is always unwise to tug on Superman's cape.

Back to lurking...