Linking isn't illegal. I presumed you meant their excerpt only policy - My comment on copyright relates to the fact that their initial objections were from when we had full Onion articles up on FR. As far as I know we can still link back to them, it's just more irritating and less pleasant to do it via FR.
Are you saying they have fromally requested a no link policy from FR?
Not that I know of... I was simply replying to a post which was replying to a post, which was..... Well you get the point...
I believe that The Onion requested that not even a link to their site be put up on FR in threads and JimRob complied.