Google pilot new webmaster communications initiative

"Google have confirmed a pilot project to 'open up communications' with webmasters they feel are breaking their guidelines. Emails are being sent to selected websites flagged for removal from the Google index. [...]
'Google is trying out a pilot program to alert site owners when we're removing their site for violating our guidelines. JavaScript redirects are the first trial, but we've also sent a few emails about hidden text, I believe.'

I think this is good news - most of penalised websites don't even know that they have been penalised - and penalisation is often due to a lack of knowledge of the guidelines, rather the willingness to trick search engines.