Its tens of thousands. And depending on how they go about it, it is. You are, however, comparing apples and oranges. Building a bot net vs. sending out a press

Its tens of thousands. And depending on how they go about it, it is. You are, however, comparing apples and oranges. Building a bot net vs. sending out a press release is very different things. Please look into Black Hat vs. White Hat SEO. You do something different with your property is OK. Manipulating other people's property through directly bypassing the countermeasures they have in place isn't OK.