Getting links

this may well have been debated here before

[jacov888]

can anyone tell me if getting links from suppossedly unrelated sites can lead to a ban on your site on search engines?
I know of well known sites that do have links to unrelated websites and are doing quite well on the search engines, What do you guys think?

[bhartzer]

unrelated sites can lead to a ban on your site on search engines?

The only way it could lead to a ban is if you own all those unrelated sites--and/or they're hosted on the same IPs or class C block of IPs.

Basically, if you're running a mini-network of sites that network can get shut down.

Otherwise, if I put links on all my sites to your unrelated site without your permission I doubt if I could get your site banned. Your competition cannot hurt you.