Google Dislikes Pages Like This?

[Halfdeck]

Looks to me like the guy was trying to bribe people into linking to his site (paid links?)

No Bob. People were paying him to link to them. TLA pays you $100-$1000 per month to have you link out to other sites. You just keep your links up and you get money in your PayPal account every month.

Read the articles when you have the time. David ran a link bombing contest to have thousands of bloggers link to his website with a specific anchor text in exchange for a prize.

"It's a mutual agreement rather than an influenced one."

It doesn't matter. A genuine vote from Google's POV means I link to you without any agreement, without me being asked for a link. Why would I link to you with no kickback? I would link to you if I thought your site rocked, and that is the kind of link Google is looking for.