Hotlinking Images

[Andara Bledin]

This is something that annoys me, but I suspect it annoys website owners far more: Hotlinnking images from their sites.

Seriously, it's not cool.

If you've got to have just an image in-line in your post, then copy it and upload it to some image hosting site: there are dozens of free ones out there for just this purpose. Don't link their image and steal their bandwidth with no return for them.

I still don't get why people don't understand this basic concept. >_<

^-.-^

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Because people don't understand the concept of "bandwidth." The Internet is free for everyone!

They don't get that really the Internet is more like a gas station for website owners.

[HYHYBT]

Or because they expect it won't be viewed enough times to matter.

[Ginger Tea]

But then again, copying an image to host it yourself then infringes on their copyrights, granted some might not give a monkeys that their lol cat image is in a dozzen places, but it all depends on what you are hosting and who it is whos image you have mirrored.

YMMV and IANAL

[crashhelmet]

IANAL

Is that the newest product from Apple?

[HYHYBT]

But then again, copying an image to host it yourself then infringes on their copyrights, granted some might not give a monkeys that their lol cat image is in a dozzen places, but it all depends on what you are hosting and who it is whos image you have mirrored.

YMMV and IANAL

Using the image without permission is copyright infringement either way, but hotlinking at least lets those who care see the source.

[Andara Bledin]

Those who care would only see the source if they knew it was hotlinked as opposed to hosted and the hotlink went to the actual source.

It's worth noting that the image that inspired me to start this thread is hosted on a site that recently put up ads because they couldn't afford the bandwidth without them.

^-.-^

[Ginger Tea]

There are a few reasons why I hotlink vs self hosting.
I find it quicker just to do it than faff around setting up a flickr account (or remembering my password to be more exact, but others may not have one).
If I hotlink a webcomic page you get to go to the rest of the site by deleting the imagename.jpg part, yes I could just link to the url of the page in question and 9/10 I do.

google image search shows a fair few dozzen of the same image so no one knows who did the original, so when you post an image from your flickr account, not wishing to hog their bandwidth, you might be erroniously crediting someone else for the image and you might end up with something like the onionskin (?) webcomic threaad where he found too many of his images on some ichcb type site.

you get caught out violating T&C of your webhosting and the image when later viewed in a thread necro is found to be null, yet a hotlink would still be up.

[Andara Bledin]

I already addressed the image source issue: Most people would never know where the image came from, so you're doing nobody any favors by hotlinking the image as opposed to just tossing in a link.

As for the rest, if you don't know where it comes from, then it's even more irresponsible to hotlink it.

As for the image years later - a lot of the more aggressive sites will replace images linked outside the site with a notice that the image was stolen (see that a lot) and I've known some personal site owners who would replace hotlinked images with porn or other objectionable material that you really don't want to be associated with. Honestly, you should never direct post an image that you don't control because you never know what the site owner is going to do. They're actually more likely to cause the image to return a null than a random image hosting site.

Also, if you get caught violating T&C by hosting someone else's image for a forum post, it's just as likely that the copyright holder is the one that got it shut down, so it's just as likely that a hotlink would also get shut down - moreso, actually, as they have direct evidence of hotlinking and have to be made aware of random forum posts.

^-.-^

[Lace Neil Singer]

Stuff made on lolcats generators tho; who does that really belong to? I've made loads of images on generators like that, so if someone decided to take it, I wouldn't flip my lid cuz it's ot as tho I put work into making it, just slapped a caption on to a screenshot.

Far worse is people who steal artwork and claim it as their own; on the doll site I go on, we had a member stealing people's handdrawn dolls and claiming them as her own on her webs site. I and the supermod managed to force her to take them down by citing copyright laws; but it happens in a lot of places. Like the massive stink kicked up on dA by some arsehole stealing art and selling it. O.o

[LadyBarbossa]

Imagine my surprise years ago when my photobucket account was saying my bandwidth had been exceeded. What? I had made some Dark Knight wallpapers and put them there to show to people on forums I posted at. Someone was using my wallpapers as their flippin' MySpace background, so bye bye bandwidth!

I replaced the image with a very fugly one I made in Paint, complete with sloppily written "I STEAL BANDWIDTH" all over it.