06-07-2004, 01:48 PM

Term: "Hot Linking"

What's it mean? Linking to an image that's hosted on a site, that belongs to another user... not you.


They say don't do it, admins and mods say "you'll get in trouble"... but as a web designer, 'scripting to protect a file from cross domain linking or "Hot Linking" is so easy, that if you complain about the issue, but can't do this, then you are dumb.

So, if you put up an image file for access by anyone and then complain that the file is actually accessed legally, but not in a manner you prefer then you are dumb.

Forum users can't be held responsible for bad web programming or scripting. There are PHP scripts freely available that can add your site's logo or watermarks to images that are posted to a site and there are example scripts that prevent other users from "Hot Linking".

Now I ask you... If you have Copyrighted Images, would you dumb enough to host them on a virtual server, a site without cross linking protection?

Comments welcomed!

06-07-2004, 02:03 PM

It's like having Airport Extreme in your apartment and not using a password to protect your bandwidth. So, who's fault is it? When some other user 'hops' on your internet connection and downloads tones of internet porn?

It's not the User's fault, I can tell you.

06-07-2004, 05:48 PM

Originally Posted by hype.it

Now I ask you... If you have Copyrighted Images, would you dumb enough to host them on a virtual server, a site without cross linking protection?

Comments welcomed!

Nothing like shooting your own argument down.

Rules are rules, which is why we are here we enforce them. Your argument is as fool hardy as this one. -- "a person buys a gun, buys bullets, finds his neighbor, shoots him in the face 4 times..." its the governments fault for allowing us to make our own choices when we buy a tool. Sigh*

Your argument is kinda shotty, feel free to discuss this, though I have a feeling it will be deleted.

06-07-2004, 09:29 PM

Simple answer: either:
A) don't hotlink
or
B) just copy the images to your server, then link from there :rolleyes:....

DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible for any legal action taken by copyright holders for my idea. I don't really do that...

But, on another note, how do you know if the server where the images came from is the user's server, or another server?

06-08-2004, 02:16 AM

We've got our methods...

06-08-2004, 02:36 AM

ahh, one of those secret moderator things?

06-08-2004, 10:08 AM

And it doesnt really matter either, if it links to a different server.. then it's hotlinking, simple as that. It looks like we havent made that stance yet, but if it's not stored on this server, then it's hotlinking It's when we try to over complicate these things is when we get into trouble!

06-08-2004, 01:41 PM

Originally Posted by Graphite

We've got our methods...

Sure...

Originally Posted by pcjabber

ahh, one of those secret moderator things?

Nop, It's a IP thing.

The first part of your IP tells you your location. i.e. United States.... etc, etc....

06-08-2004, 02:32 PM

This link is really interesting too! Looks like a re-make....

Fight Club!!

Clubbing!!

06-08-2004, 02:38 PM

Oh. This is gonna get interesting :p

06-08-2004, 02:50 PM

I would definitely call that cross posting I love how you cut and paste what we say and not actually use it in it's entireity when commenting. For example I said this about hotlinking using your own server: "It looks like we havent made that stance yet" and yet you are stating that we said it's illegal.. which at this point it is not, but if you would like we can discuss it, make it illegal and that will solve your whole dilemma. It's suprising how much energy you put into wanting to hotlink.. it's strange actually. Or are you the type of person to just try to cause waves, for the fun of causing waves? We can make it illegal on this site.. that's really not a problem at all.

Please when quoting me, quote everything I said that way people can see exactly what I said and not your cut and paste version of what I said.

Cheers!

Oh.. so do you want it to be illegal? I just need to find your stance on this, since we havent had any problems until now with hotlinking.

06-08-2004, 02:52 PM

my version? You didn't say this??

Originally Posted by Murlyn
And it doesnt really matter either, if it links to a different server.. then it's hotlinking, simple as that. It looks like we havent made that stance yet, but if it's not stored on this server, then it's hotlinking It's when we try to over complicate these things is when we get into trouble!

Too much free time i guess...

06-08-2004, 03:04 PM

Here are some other stances on hotlinking found on the net:

"Guess what - many free website services (and I suppose paid services as well) don't allow hotlinking - it sucks bandwidth from them without people seeing their ads! Geocities & Tripod are a couple common free services that evidently don't allow hotlinking."
- So in other words, if that site makes it's money from ads and you hotlink, people will not see those ads, plus it sucks up more bandwidth that they are not getting any revenue from.

http://www.wolverineandrogue.com/hotlink.html
http://altlab.com/hotlinking.html
- Take notice of this section: "WHY SHOULD I STOP HOTLINKING?"

http://www.htmlbasix.com/disablehotlinking.shtml
http://www.deuceofclubs.com/switcheroo/
- This stuff would not be needed if people read the rules and actually followed them, but there is always a few that if you don't block everything and anything, will try to get around the rules.


So I would read this stuff if I was you, so that you can get an idea of why we do not allow hotlinking. So then maybe you can be a good netizen and follow the rules of the community that YOU decided to join. If you do not like the laws, rules, etc of a country, school, forurm, etc then you do not have to join. It's pretty simple

06-08-2004, 03:05 PM

Sure I said what you quoted above, but on that other site that you posted, when you commented you only used part of what I said.

06-08-2004, 03:09 PM

it's identical to the posts on here d00d.