A recent thread at Webmasterworld takes a look at the issue of SEO, Ethics, and Google. The premise of the original post in the thread states that many webmasters are now defining 'acceptable behaviour' and 'ethical SEO' in terms of the party lines thrown out by Google via their 'official outlets' such as the various Google Groups, Matt Cutts' blog, etc.

To a certain extent, the original poster has recognized a valid and growing trend in webmasters - there is no doubt that many are now speaking the Google party line. After all, why shouldn't they? As the largest search engine, Google has virtual life-or-death control over what sites are popular and which are not. A penalty imposed by Google for not meeting their guidelines is a death knell for a site, often condemning it to a state of limbo.