[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

According to the "fair use" doctrine, the owner of a copyright cannot obtain judicial relief if the alleged infringer's use of the copyrighted material is minimal. So, for example, when someone quotes a sentence or two from a book, the author/publisher can't do much about it. Moreover, I believe the Supreme Court has ruled that posting links which re-direct the browser to the copyright owner's site are fair game.

So, while I understand why the AP would go after people who are posting entire articles without links, I have no idea why they would try to sue people who are just posting snippets with links. Not only are they alienating people, but they're highly unlikely to win in court if they are challenged.