The linking issue came up in the DECSS case.

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/01/cyber/cyberlaw/07law.html

There have been a lot more cases in Europe about this than in the US. IE Louis Vuitton sued Google over linking to fake merchandise.

here are a few more:
Ticketmaster v. Microsoft [1997]
Ticketmaster v. Tickets.com March 2000
Washington Post v. TotalNEWS, Inc.
HK Finance.com v. Prosticks.com

Seems to me that they need to just leave Google and the linkers alone; and go after the companies/people that do the crime.

Online law and precidents are QUITE murky still. The DMCA is a mess too. The Washington Post v. TotalNEWS, Inc. might be particularly relevant for you.

-skullaria

Acidus wrote:
] ] Why is Google immune from liability?
] ]
] ] The most direct reason is that a federal law that those
] ] who host, rather than author, speech on the Internet
] ] cannot be treated, for legal purposes, as having
] ] published it. As a result, they cannot be sued for
] ] defamation -- or for any other tort that has publication
] ] as one of its essential elements.
] ]
] ] The law protects message board owners, chat room hosts,
] ] bloggers who give others access to their blogs, and
] ] indeed, virtually anyone who allows material on their
] ] site, or provides access to material, that they do not
] ] themselves author. That includes Google and other search
] ] sites.
] ]
] ] By contrast, the defamation liability risk of selection
] ] sites such as The Drudge Report -- that is, sites that
] ] offer collections of specially culled links to other
] ] sites -- remains uncertain. Someone who chooses a link
] ] may count as having published the material to which the
] ] link leads -- and may be held to have the state of mind
] ] to be held liable for the choice. This argument has been
] ] used in the context of the Digital Millennium Copyright
] ] Act, and could be used in the defamation context, as
] ] well.
]
] I checked and couldn't find any court presidence on what
] constitutes "publishing" content on the Internet and "linking"
] content on the Internet. Anyone know of any?
]
] What are the legal ramifications of meme-ing a site that
] contents something defamatory? This has interesting
] consequences for the blogging community: seeing how stories
] and commentaries are spread by the Internet equivilent of word
] of mouth, linking, a single defamatory story would act as a
] virus, exposes all who link it to possible legal action.

RE: Why you can't sue Google