I disagree, I have built one way links from submitting articles and press releases and these are they type of links that google encourages people to build.
Kinda sad (IMHO) that people are so intimidated by Google that they allow G to say what you do with your site. Your site..that you pay for, that you work on, that you own. Do no evil my ass.
How you get caught? If your site is about gaming, and on your site's footer, there are links to loan companies, you are busted..
links in the footer is a pattern of paid links, I got two of my websites PR edited to 0 .. of of them have three links in the footer .. BUT guess what .. they are my own website there are not sold links
A lot of people got their PR back. Just file a reconsideration request with Google and include a note on the steps you took to comply with their TOS