If say.. I was second and I put some hidden links on a page to whoever was number one and google penalised them for it... is there something that actually makes that illegal?
I can imagine it could well be considered immoral, but a lot of people consider black hat ceo the same.
I think it would probably be easier to get someone eliminated than to get from the 2 spot to the 1 spot.
As for having something to gain from it, if that got you the number 1 spot, gain!
I was not suggesting it would be a good idea either way, but, maybe, if enough people kept getting falsely black listed, maybe they would have to ease up and make gaming them easier.