I don’t think the first scenario is a paid link. If it has a review with it, its a link relevant to that page. Even if its a paid review, I don’t think the associated links can be said to be paid links.

And here’s where Google would disagree — - they consider a paid review (and any links within) to be paid links. (Google Watching Paid Review Blogs)

That particular scenario was really intended to set up an external ethical dilemma: are you selling a link if you’re unaware of the concept of link selling. (It’s not an ethical dilemma for the imaginary participants; since ethics require knowledge of the scenario…)

Thanks for your comments!

[name edited]

Disclaimer: I am not a Search engine expert - just an ordinary web developer.