Well EE is nasty and I hate it, but they have the right if they choose to do so. Anyway they didn't steal the contents from anywhere. That being said, I'll probably add EE to my block list :)
Just scroll down past the stupid paywall when you come from google or bing. Or become an expert for free http://bit.ly/EEfree
I have been an expert there (not an employee) since 1998 and it is a great site. For a while now there are free articles and blogs too. I agree with the haters that the paywall should go away, but that is the decision of the owners of EE and those in the know can get full ad-free access by answering approx 3 questions a month. It took me more effort to have a reasonable flair at SO...
I don't mind their business model, but I can't understand why they appear near the top of so many search results.
Either they are very good at (mis-)using SEO techniques, or there are really many websites linking to them. However, I personally find it hard to believe that any author of a blog article or forum entry links to an EE answer voluntarily.