Check out this video hotlinking fucker

[Brown Bear]

http://www.sensibleerection.com/entry.php/7282

Tons of videos being hotlinked on that page.

[sobri]

hi, i'm the webmaster of that site. just wanted to pop in and apologise for the hotlinking.

if anyone catches their server being hotlinked from my site, please email me (matt AT sensibleerection.com) and i'll remove the links.

it also might be worth getting an account at SE and messaging the users doing the hotlinking, letting them know you don't want your server getting hit. the people doing it are all quite reasonable chaps, and i'm sure they'll see reason.

[quiet]

Originally posted by sobri
hi, i'm the webmaster of that site. just wanted to pop in and apologise for the hotlinking.

if anyone catches their server being hotlinked from my site, please email me (matt AT sensibleerection.com) and i'll remove the links.

it also might be worth getting an account at SE and messaging the users doing the hotlinking, letting them know you don't want your server getting hit. the people doing it are all quite reasonable chaps, and i'm sure they'll see reason.

why is the page still there? all of those links should be removed

[Brown Bear]

sobri, why do you allow anyone to post hotlinked videos? you should ban them immediately.

Do you enjoy lawyers?

Do you enjoy having your host cut-off your hosting because you support hotlinkers?

Do you enjoy your sponsor banning you for supporting hotlinkers?

Because you're headed for trouble with supporting hotlinkers

[Brown Bear]

Do you think we really want to email you everytime we find someone on your site hotlinking us?

That gets old fast. It's much easier (and more fun) to get lawyers involved to cut-off your hosting and get your sponsors to ban you.

[extreme]

You know, it's really not very hard at all to stop hotlinking.

Providing services on the internet is dangerous unless you put restrictions in place to prevent abuse of the services.
I really don't see any way hotlinking could be illegal, but then I'm not from the land of lawsuits either ...

[psyko514]

Originally posted by extreme
I really don't see any way hotlinking could be illegal, but then I'm not from the land of lawsuits either ...

The people who are being hotlinked have purchased the videos being hotlinked and own licenses and/or copyrights to said material. You figure out why that's illegal.
It's like taking a Tom Clancy book, changing the name and re-releasing it as your own piece of work.

[extreme]

Originally posted by psyko514


The people who are being hotlinked have purchased the videos being hotlinked and own licenses and/or copyrights to said material. You figure out why that's illegal.
It's like taking a Tom Clancy book, changing the name and re-releasing it as your own piece of work.

Actually no, since the one doing the distribution is the one hosting it. The one hotlinking is pointing people to the licensee.

But I'll agree that the copyright complaint is a much stronger one. But I still don't get why people just don't take the time to put in some good anti-hotlinking measures..

[Brown Bear]

Originally posted by extreme


Actually no, since the one doing the distribution is the one hosting it. The one hotlinking is pointing people to the licensee.

But I'll agree that the copyright complaint is a much stronger one. But I still don't get why people just don't take the time to put in some good anti-hotlinking measures..

and what anti-hotlinking measures do you suggest people use for video? .htaccess does not protect video files

[psyko514]

There's also the issue of stealing bandwith...

[psyko514]

Originally posted by extreme
Actually no, since the one doing the distribution is the one hosting it. The one hotlinking is pointing people to the licensee.

I have no clue what you're saying...

[sobri]

i haven't banned hotlinking to date, because i try to run a completely uncensored website (or at least, as uncensored as i can achieve without breaking the law).

if someone can make a good case for why it is illegal (and psyko514's scenario does sound plausible), or point me towards information on the web that proves the illegality of it, then i will ban it.

i hate hotlinking as much as anyone else, but i try to keep away from enforcing my own morals on my users. but as i said, if it's illegal, then i'll make it stop.

i'm also aware that it's quite difficult to come up with a technical solution to the hotlinking, from the host's perspective (.htaccess tricks failing due to media players not passing referrer strings, etc), so i don't think it's a fair argument to say that people hosting the movies should be solving it their end.

[Sambuka]

Anyone who is big enough to have lots of money to waste on (probably internetional) lawsuits would easily have the money and programmers to quickly make up a anti hot link system.

[pipp]

Originally posted by Sambuka
Anyone who is big enough to have lots of money to waste on (probably internetional) lawsuits would easily have the money and programmers to quickly make up a anti hot link system.

There are systems out there that prevent movies from being hotlinked. Those who got'em just want share them

[psyko514]

are you saying that my examples aren't good cases?

you pay for bandwith and webspace on your server. if someone hotlinks content from your site, they are stealing from you. theft is illegal, isn't it?

you pay for the license to your content, or you shoot your own content and own the copyrights. the person hotlinking the content and displaying it as his/her own doesn't not have the license or the copyright for the content being hotlinked. theft of intellectual property. look it up at google, and i'm sure you'll find the actual laws pertaining to this.

i hate wieners who ask people to point them to something on the web as opposed to finding it themselves.

[Brown Bear]

you don't want to enforce your own morals? its your website!

who's hosting do you think will get shut off? YOURS!

who's sponsors will ban you for supporting hotlinking? YOURS!

who will have to deal with the lawyers should anyone decide to take legal action? YOU!

There are no benefits to supporting hotlinkers. I have seen many a hotlinking forum website come and go, you wanna know why? You might find out very soon.

I suggest you don't continue to allow people to post hotlinked videos to your website. You will be the one who pays the price for it, not them.

[quiet]

Originally posted by sobri
i haven't banned hotlinking to date, because i try to run a completely uncensored website (or at least, as uncensored as i can achieve without breaking the law).

if someone can make a good case for why it is illegal (and psyko514's scenario does sound plausible), or point me towards information on the web that proves the illegality of it, then i will ban it.

i hate hotlinking as much as anyone else, but i try to keep away from enforcing my own morals on my users. but as i said, if it's illegal, then i'll make it stop.

i'm also aware that it's quite difficult to come up with a technical solution to the hotlinking, from the host's perspective (.htaccess tricks failing due to media players not passing referrer strings, etc), so i don't think it's a fair argument to say that people hosting the movies should be solving it their end.

regardless of any other issues, it is bandwidth theft. in fact that page at mentioned at the top of this thread is costing me money, out of pocket - right now.

i haven't emailed you about it, because it's well below my 'radar screen' in terms of theft.

i'd appreciate it if you removed all of the links.

[Brown Bear]

Originally posted by Sambuka
Anyone who is big enough to have lots of money to waste on (probably internetional) lawsuits would easily have the money and programmers to quickly make up a anti hot link system.

Quiet has videos being hotlinked by that guy. I think he has plenty money to waste on an international lawsuit if he wanted to, and he has said before that he has shut down many hotlinking websites before.

[sobri]

psyko514, i already have found information on the web with regards to linking/hotlinking. from what i've read, the case is far from clear. i'm asking people to point me to something that IS clear.

for your reference:
the linking controversy
http://www.jura.uni-tuebingen.de/~s-bes1/lcp.html

i would personally refer to ban hotlinking. as i said, i don't like it either. but i refuse to enforce my personal *morals* on my users. what i *will* enforce is legal restrictions.

[sobri]

although, the suggesting that my sponsors have rules against supporting hotlinking is a good point. if that's the case, then that would be enough justification for me to ban it too.

...

in the meantime, what i'lll do is switch off the auto linking, so that at least the hotlinks currently there are no longer links.

[pipp]

Originally posted by sobri
psyko514, i already have found information on the web with regards to linking/hotlinking. from what i've read, the case is far from clear. i'm asking people to point me to something that IS clear.

for your reference:
the linking controversy
http://www.jura.uni-tuebingen.de/~s-bes1/lcp.html

i would personally refer to ban hotlinking. as i said, i don't like it either. but i refuse to enforce my personal *morals* on my users. what i *will* enforce is legal restrictions.

Stop making a fool off you're self, you're walking into a one way highway blindfolded.

[Brown Bear]

Originally posted by sobri
although, the suggesting that my sponsors have rules against supporting hotlinking is a good point. if that's the case, then that would be enough justification for me to ban it too.

...

in the meantime, what i'lll do is switch off the auto linking, so that at least the hotlinks currently there are no longer links.

There are no benefits to owning a website that becomes know as hotlinker heaven. However, there is a whole world of pain to experience once you get big enough to start getting the attention of enough webmasters that have gotten hotlinked by your site.

[psyko514]

Originally posted by psyko514
you pay for bandwith and webspace on your server. if someone hotlinks content from your site, they are stealing from you. theft is illegal, isn't it?

what part of that do you not understand, or disagree with?
do you really want me to find laws stating theft is illegal.

here's another analogy. you open with shelves of merchandise you've purchased from suppliers. someone walks in, ropes off an area of the store and sells the merchandise in that area as his own merchandise. figure out what's illegal with that.

[sobri]

no psyko514, i want you to point me towards information that states that linking/hotlinking/deep-linking is theft. not whether theft itself is illegal.

but either way, it appears there's enough angry people willing to throw around their weight, or at least threaten to, that i might as well back off, illegality confirmed or otherwise.

although i do suggest that those people interested in the legal arguments either way read the page i linked above. there's a wealth of case study, law suits, etc referenced there that make for interesting reading (not that legal writing is ever all that fascinating, i guess).

[psyko514]

i'm not talking about linking or deep linking.
if you read the case studies on that site, you'll see that many cases ruled in favour of the victims of hotlinking, or that the case was settled out of court.

i pay for my bandwith. by using *my* bandwith for *your* purposes, without asking *me*, you are using *my* property without *my* permission. that is theft.

i paid for my car. if you use it without asking me, you are stealing my car, right? same concept. theft is theft is theft, be it electronic or otherwise.

[Brown Bear]

Originally posted by sobri
no psyko514, i want you to point me towards information that states that linking/hotlinking/deep-linking is theft. not whether theft itself is illegal.

but either way, it appears there's enough angry people willing to throw around their weight, or at least threaten to, that i might as well back off, illegality confirmed or otherwise.

although i do suggest that those people interested in the legal arguments either way read the page i linked above. there's a wealth of case study, law suits, etc referenced there that make for interesting reading (not that legal writing is ever all that fascinating, i guess).

Good stuff. You don't want to get a reputation as a hotlinker. It's almost as bad as being in kiddie porn.

Stop the hotlinking and everyone will be happy.

[The Other Steve]

I wonder how clear a lawsuit has to be to make it clear to this guy that what he is doing is W R O N G and no amount of moralistic free speech bullshit makes it right.

[The Other Steve]

I think Rack Shack would be only too willing to co-operate with any webmaster who might contact them with a hot linking complaint about this idiot.

[sobri]

Originally posted by The Other Steve
I wonder how clear a lawsuit has to be to make it clear to this guy that what he is doing is W R O N G and no amount of moralistic free speech bullshit makes it right.

i never said i thought it was right.

it does seem odd though, to hear someone in the porn community of all places, putting free speech and bullshit in the same sentence.

ugh .. now i'm just getting trolled ..

look, i said i give in. i'll ban the hotlinking. enough already.

[quiet]

Originally posted by The Other Steve
I think Rack Shack would be only too willing to co-operate with any webmaster who might contact them with a hot linking complaint about this idiot.

yes, that's the easiest route to persue.

[The Other Steve]

I never said that free speech was wrong - please don't misunderstand me.

I just said that the way you were hiding behind it was bullshit. You don't want to impose your morals on others using your site to steal - oh come now!

Anyway cock your morals aren't so high and mighty - I wonder if I checked out the Auckland street directory if I would find a 123 Eatme Street - so it seems that you may not be averse to falsifying your whois details.

[Brown Bear]

Originally posted by The Other Steve
I wonder if I checked out the Auckland street directory if I would find a 123 Eatme Street

Actually, it's right next to 123 I'm a Turd Burglar Street

[sobri]

Originally posted by The Other Steve
I never said that free speech was wrong - please don't misunderstand me.

I just said that the way you were hiding behind it was bullshit. You don't want to impose your morals on others using your site to steal - oh come now!

actually that's exactly the case. i really have never liked the hotlinking, but have never stopped it purely because i don't censor anything on my site unless it's illegal.

but if you'll calm down a little, and reread my posts, you'll see that i am going to ban hotlinking anyway, as a special case.

Anyway cock your morals aren't so high and mighty - I wonder if I checked out the Auckland street directory if I would find a 123 Eatme Street - so it seems that you may not be averse to falsifying your whois details.

the whois details are falsified due to the fact that i do not have a PO Box, and i move regularly. i really don't have an actual address to put in there. there's no conspiracy to be found there.

i'd appreciate it if you'd back off with the personal attacks and details prying.

if you really want to continue flaming me, i'm happy to listen to it via icq (9135229) or email (matt AT sensibleerection.com). i don't think it serves much purpose to continue cluttering this thread with bickering.

[MichaelH]

Everyone sends a hotlink complaint to rackshack with topic : Theft of Services - Hotlinking

If they (hosting company) don't want to escalate that problem to further instance (content owners/providers copyright etc) , they'll need to or shut the site down or block any access to that site until the matter is fixed.

Hotlinking is a delict also known as theft of services. Anyone with server logs confirming a theft of services can bring that into court and request a compensation for that damage.

Though, with a mass complaint to the involved hosting company, it's already enough to be done ;)

Michael

[The Other Steve]

Well perhaps you just learned a very valuable lesson sport - hotlinkers and people who support hotlinkers are not appreciated, tolerated, respected, liked or anything else but abused and reviled in the adult webmaster community.

And as for prying? Get a grip sport - looking in the public record is not prying.

[Brown Bear]

Originally posted by The Other Steve
hotlinkers and people who support hotlinkers are not appreciated, tolerated, respected, liked or anything else but abused and reviled in the adult webmaster community.

Very true.

All hotlinkers must die.

[Tipsy]

Seems to be a lot of new nutters floating around the boards lately. I suppose at least this one has a little understanding of the English language even if his head's too far up his ass to see out.

[Sambuka]

Yep contacting there host is the best way, Rackshack has some very harsh spamming rules so i'm sure they won't much like a bunch of webmasters complaining about one of there customers either. Lawsuits are too expensive for this sort of thing, but taking down there host is pretty easy. Or at least having all of the hot linked images/movies removed.

Sammy

[sobri]

i'm in the process of removing all the hotlinking posts, so i'd prefer if anyone with a complaint contacted me first, rather than rackshack.

[BV]

It still amazes me how some webmasters complain about free traffic.

[erotictrance]

Someone mentioned hotlinking protection for video, but didn't post any details ....

Does anyone have any recommendations on how to do this?

[spaceman73]

Just an idea I had,
If you can't protect yourself, at less you could edit the end of the video with a URL of your site against a black background or something like that. At less you would get some publicity out of it, and the surfer that likes it might visit your site.

But Hotlinking really sucks big time. I don't understand how anyone could endorse it, or even just turn blind eyes on it.


Jon

[Gemini]

the whois details are falsified

There you go. Simple Solution right from him. Find the addy at NetSol and report him for false details.

ARIN just ordered Netsol to start enforcing (an old order) that if the details are false, then they have to right to remove the domain from the hands of the one commiting the act of falsifying.

So anyone getting hotlinked...... Pow!

[The Other Steve]

I don't think any of us noticed last night when this turkey had his message board jam-packed with hot links but he actually has a Paypal account where like minded people can make donations to support his work.

This guy must have a critical screw loose somewhere.

[sobri]

Originally posted by Gemini
the whois details are falsified

There you go. Simple Solution right from him. Find the addy at NetSol and report him for false details.

ARIN just ordered Netsol to start enforcing (an old order) that if the details are false, then they have to right to remove the domain from the hands of the one commiting the act of falsifying.

So anyone getting hotlinked...... Pow!

thanks for letting me know about this Gemini (even if that wasn't your intention

guess it's time i got a PO Box :-/

[SykkBoy]

Isn't the shrunken version of Amatuerpages clickpic banner a violation of AP's TOS?

I believe TrafficCashGold would have some problems with their banners being on a thief's site too...


everyone knows my views on some of the practices are more liberal than most, but open directory listings and hotlinking are things even I can't condone....

[sobri]

Originally posted by The Other Steve
I don't think any of us noticed last night when this turkey had his message board jam-packed with hot links but he actually has a Paypal account where like minded people can make donations to support his work.

This guy must have a critical screw loose somewhere.

dude, you seem to be a few nudie shots short of a gallery. the hotlinking posts are *gone*. and if you'll pay further attention (i know, this might be challenge) it wasn't me doing the post pointing out the paypal option, and it has *never* been me doing the hotlinking.

you could rightly say i was supporting hotlinkers by allowing the posts, but you could never say that i was doing the hotlinking posts myself.

the hotlinking was a SMALL part of the site, that is NOW GONE.

i've informed the users of the situation, and hopefully it won't happen again.

see this thread:
http://www.sensibleerection.com/entry.php/7857

and my reply to it here:
http://www.sensibleerection.com/comment.php/7857/37677

if that isn't a satisfactory enough solution, then please let me know. (/me braces himself for more after-the-fact lynching)

[Brown Bear]

you should be thankful that this thread educated you about the perils of being a hotlinker.....you've corrected your evil ways before much much more could have happened

[sobri]

Originally posted by SykkBoy2
Isn't the shrunken version of Amatuerpages clickpic banner a violation of AP's TOS?

just checked, and you're right. i've pulled those resized ads now. i figured since stile does them, and resized even smaller, that that was ok. but perhaps he gets special allowances. who knows.

[The Other Steve]

It is encouraging to see that you have removed all those hot-links but don't pretend to be something you are not.

Regardless of who put them there, you were certainly benefiting from them becauseyou were using those hot-links as bait to get people to come to your site.

You needed something to get people there because you're selling advertising per impression and without all those juicy free movies any income you might have from advertising is going to disappear real quick.