Mark, I'm sorry, I guess I misspoke. The controversy is not so much about LINKING but about PHOTOBLOGGING. You are putting copies of other's All Rights Reserved images on your explicitly commercial site.

What was at one time stated as the cool, web-2.0 thing to do, is now thought of along the lines as a DMCA violation. Read the forums at flickr. There are frequently complaints along the lines of, "Hey, someone photoblogged my ARR (or CC-nc) images on a web site with ads. They didn't even ask!" The policy at flickr has changed.

I used to Blog This! whenever I found interesting images at flickr, but not anymore. I think this fear-of-lawsuit can derail all of the fun of Web 2.0. You all are just the ones to take on this issue!

Are you sure you want to go linking to folks' "All Rights Reserved" images at flickr without their permission?

I would surely like boingboing to investigate the controversy that has erupted at flickr at how the presumed meaning of the "Blog This" button has changed over the years. It used to be viewed as a presumed license. Now the employees of flickr (a Yahoo! subsidiary) are saying that the button is only there for folks who have previously made arrangements for permission.

Crowdsourcing is over, as is much of the fun that was at flickr. Could you boing-boingers please investigate and comment on this, which involves corporate-types ruining the fun of sharing media and copyright law, your favorite topics?