Is it ethical to link another site

laz · Oct 11, 2005

Curt said:
This is easy to solve. Read the book; "The Fountain Head".

So you think Jorge should blow up the website at which his hotlinked photo appeared!!!!

(you have to have read the book)

Dan Fromm · Oct 12, 2005

Ole said:
Calm down please, folks - or this thread will follow the LFforum.info-thread into oblivion.

Or maybe it should do that anyway?

Well, for the most part this thread is a string of complaints about a problem that can't be fixed. Venting, in a word. Perhaps its useful.

Kimberly Anderson · Oct 13, 2005

Mongo said:
The best defense to hotlinking is to replace the hotlinked image with something that makes the hotlinker look like an idiot.

This very exact thing happnes to me all the time. When I find the link I initially will send a polite e-mail requesting the infringer to cease-and-desist. If I recieve no action I'll send an e-mail to the web-site admin. No action still? I take matters into my own hands...much as Mongo has mentioned.

You can read about my last episode here:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=397893&highlight=copyright

Usually I don't have to go this far.

Copyright is a very tender issue for me. I just spent the last 2 1/2 years of my life and upwards of $15,000 defending it against a company who was using an image of mine illegally. The case settled before we went to court, and I won.

juan · Oct 13, 2005

Exchanging the photo doesn't solve the problem of stolen bandwidth - the new photo will probably use as much bandwidth as the replaced, hot-linked photo. If the hotlink causes you to exceed your allowed bandwidth, as was the case with my site, you'll still exceed bandwidth.

My new host has a feature that prevents hotlinking, so I have taken advantage of that. Looking in stats, I can still see the hotlinks, but they are no longer using my bandwidth.
juan

Mongo · Oct 13, 2005

juan said:
Exchanging the photo doesn't solve the problem of stolen bandwidth...

It can lessen the problem if you make the right image...something like "I hotlinked someone elses image and now they replaced it with this message...aren't I a moron?" at 100x100 in simple black text on a white background can get down to around 1K as a very low quality JPG, and will still make the hotlinker look like a jerk. Of course, you can also just rename the image file so that all of his pictures show up as broken links.

I know it's best just to set things up so that people can't hotlink...but I love the idea of screwing around with someone whom I'd consider a thief just based on his or her actions. Sometimes I'm just too cynical...

Kimberly Anderson · Oct 13, 2005

Mongo said:
I know it's best just to set things up so that people can't hotlink...but I love the idea of screwing around with someone whom I'd consider a thief just based on his or her actions.

That was the most rewarding part for me also.

Bill Mitchell · Oct 13, 2005

What's a "hotlink?"

Jorge · Oct 13, 2005

Bill Mitchell said:
What's a "hotlink?"

showing an image on one site that is actually posted in another site. For example this image is not in APUG, you are seeing a picture that is stored in my picture hosting site.

tim atherton · Oct 18, 2005

Mongo said:
The best defense to hotlinking is to replace the hotlinked image with something that makes the hotlinker look like an idiot.

Yes, obviously not an option in this case, but during the last election a farily welll known right wing blog hotlinked to a photo a colleague had of a particular politician (can't even remeber who now). He emailed them and asked them to remove it, but they just brushed him off. So he replaced the image with a goth/bondage one - came down pretty quickly after that....

Mongo · Oct 18, 2005

tim said:
So he replaced the image with a goth/bondage one - came down pretty quickly after that....

What the 'net really needs is a page that collects all of these pranks in one place. You can find them out there if you look through a lot of humor sites, but there's no "look who got screwed by hotlinking" site anywhere on teh 'net (at least not that I'm aware of). Now that would be a hoot!

Is it ethical to link another site

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Privacy & Transparency