It is, but cui bono. I know that local software companies in my city had meetings coordinating the local software dev wage level. There's no reason to assume something like this isn't going on at a larger scale too.
Almost nowhere. But hard to prove in court. You should report it to the local authorities at least.
Nonsense. There's nothing generally illegal about vendor sponsored junkets for private industry attendees. Some companies have policies against their own employees attending such events but that's not a legal issue.
Yeah, everyone knows Jobs' mistake was to use email. This kinda thing is done very unofficially.
LOL. Or do the early 1900s thing and kick somebodies ass badly.