Apparently in a response to Matt Cutt’s recent warning that google would crack down on paid links it does appear as if they have taken steps toward giving these links less weight.

The execution this time, however, has been different than in the past. Rather than hitting sites renting links it appears as though Google went through all sites actually selling links and hit them across the board. This is a bad thing for the link brokers trying to disclose everything - it’s a huge plus for the guys selling links that appear natural. Also, link prices on higher page ranked sites appear to be going up since the most recent update. Google’s making the wrong guys rich.