No one has shown any evidence that Microsoft has directly copied Google's search index, or even violated the directives in google.com's robots.txt file.
What Microsoft apparently has done is to infer relationships from Gooogle SRPs to various sites by way of information gathered through the Bing toolbar (and possibly other documented and user opt-in channels w/in IE). Using toolbar collected signals is well-established practice -- that's how Google obtains information regarding site performance.
The only thing I haven't seen is this. Ok, using the clickstream data is an established practice, but does Google use clickstream data from users making searches on OTHER search engines, or just their own?
This is the crux for me, Bing is using data from Google, does Google use data from Bing or only themselves?
Even if all true, I don't see it as unethical business practice. Definitely a marketing black eye, but not much else.
What Microsoft apparently has done is to infer relationships from Gooogle SRPs to various sites by way of information gathered through the Bing toolbar (and possibly other documented and user opt-in channels w/in IE). Using toolbar collected signals is well-established practice -- that's how Google obtains information regarding site performance.