tedster - 8:16 pm on Jun 18, 2010 (gmt 0)

while penalizing affiliate sites.

Sites build from affiliate feeds and duplicate content, most definitely get hurt. Pages that are only about a laundry list of affiliate links, yes. But in both tcases, the "penalty" seems to be more about the low quality content.

The mere presence of an affiliate link does not penalize a good quality site - that's a bit of mythology, as far as I can see.