Judge Richard Posner thinks that should be the case:

Expanding copyright law to bar online access to copyrighted materials without the copyright holder’s consent, or to bar linking to or paraphrasing copyrighted materials without the copyright holder’s consent . . .

What Posner is arguing is insane. Basically he is saying that if I want to link to an article on the New York Times site (just a link, no quoting), I would need express written permission from them.

This would not only hurt the blogosphere, but also help destroy much of the internet. What would Google do? This would destroy search engines. Basically they are nothing but a link repository that is searchable, so they would be violating the copyrights of everyone, unless they receive express permission before hand.

Even more disturbing is that Posner is considered one of the most brilliant judges in our nation. He has been mentioned countless times for the Supreme Court and has really made a name for himself. For such a legal mind to even suggest such a thing is very scary.