As far as I know, you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 to download the lion OS. The 10.6..8 update was mostly to prepare the app store system on the Macs for Lion. And yesterday there was an update to prepare the migration assistant, for migrating data into Lion.
Unless Apple make install DVDs available, which they have said they will not, the only legal option is then to upgrade to Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and then upgrade to Lion.
A 60$ upgrade is really cheap compared to earlier 129$ upgrades. And just think what Windows 7 people have to pay for Windows 7 Ultimate (without any comparison). OSX has only the top version, but Windows has as I understand 7 different versions, each with their own price tags. Compared to that, we gets away cheap.
And, my Blackbook from 2006, I have upgraded first from Tiger to Leopard, then to Snow Leopard and now to Lion. Finally the "very expensive" Mac, as Windows people proclaim, shows it's value. It can still keep up.
My brother are these days buying a Macbook Pro, after having bought two Windows machines since 2005, to keep the pace up. In a way he is lucky, he gets the Macbook Pro. I am still stuck with my Blackbook, as I cannot justify changing it as long as it servers me trustworthy day after day without problems.
Best regards, Jan