your thoughts on hotlinking/linking
 

Is it really illegal to hotlink images?
What about simply linking with "a href" tag to image?
Is it any different?
I have some guy bugging me because my surfers are hotlinking images on message board .
I said him to fuck off for now, but I'm still worried about this.
I know it's not ethical to do so, but are there laws to back this up?

Can my site be shut down with DMCA notice for hotlinking or not?

Thanks

lol...

You are a dumbfuck

Hotlinking can be considered illegal...your stealing bandwidth...

Jon

Put it this way. If you hotlinked any of my images you would be looking for another hosting company.....

qualitythumbs and p00p instead of posting bullshit replies like you are 13 y.o kids why don't you take some time and post constructive messages

let's take Google.com and their image search enghine
they are hotlinking images

let's take this url
in the top frame there is hotlink to original image.
How do they get away with it if it's illegal as you say?
Agan if it's legal - show me the law that says so.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's legal or good, I personally think it's wrong to hotlink.
but is there a law that says hotlinking is illegal?

Hey what's your boards URL man?

Hotlinking isn't "illegal" as in there is a law that says "You may not hotlink". You could get caught under "Computer mischief", or "Attempt of denial of service". If someone has a small website with barely any bandwidth and someone hotlinks an image, you can slow a server down to a crawl, not letting legit users access it.

Remember, people pay for bandwidth, and when you hotlink, you are costing a real person money! Simple as that.
ZoiNk

This is GFY...Long thought out messages are highly overrated...

Stealing is illegal...Bandwidth is something you pay for...You hotlink something...Your using their bandwidth they pay for...So...Your stealing something...

No need to look for some law about hotlinking...

Jon

They ain't hotlinking me, big daddy! :1orglaugh

No shit, would you like it if we all moved into your neighborhood and used YOUR electricity without your permission? Use your brain man.

if you do so I'll quickly bring you to court.

Probably we can say the same about hotlinking. BUT - Has anyone ever been sued for hotlinking?

No. You win. Hotlink away.

THere are other ways other than suing someone to deal with hotlinking. I've had, and seen so many people get shut down so fast that they will never hotlink again.

Why don't you stop acting like a 13 year old webmaster who is doing nothing more than providing a place that allows illegal activities, Yes hotlinking IS illegal. it is theft. Theft is taking possesions and or services with no permision to do so. Your little hotlinking pissants are costing people money. When a webmaster gives you hell about his images being hotlinked or linked in any fassion it is up to YOU to remove them.

I have had pissing matches with so many sites that refused to remove the damn threads with hotlinks in it in pic post furums. So in the htaccess they go. Even paysites that I have caught doing this won't take responsibility for this shit. Provide them with detailed logs they threaten me with a fucking lawyer for slandering their name.....

Listen man, it's not worth the bullshit. Shut your site down or dont allow hotlinks at all. Give them storage space to put their pics on. OR Set it up so surfers have to show where the pic from or post is not approved. I caught a paysite hotlinking image sof mine again last night. BUT, they had banners to my site right underneath. That is a more polite and politicaly correct way of doing things :2 cents:

what is yoru url? I wish to add it to my htaccess before I end up breaking my foot off in your ass knee deep if any of your surfers happen to hotlink my pics and movies.

You don't want a constructive response, you want someone to tell you it's okay to hotlink other people.

It's not. You know it's not, since you already said it's wrong.

Go away.

You guys need to look at this a bit more constructively.:glugglug

I check my refers all the time. Its not unusual to see 2 or 3 thousand hits from some board. Usually I check it out, and more often than not, somebody has posted some of my pics from the free area. Where is the beef? This might even be legal under "fair access". Most of the time they are watermarked and probably generate some signups. Traffic is traffic.

Now if somebody posts members content, or links every pic on my own site to promote his own, that's some different shit. Every time I go after the CC processor and get the pics removed.

A board is a bit different though. If its really generating a lot of traffic, I join the board and post a few of my best into the thread. Once I even went into a pirate site and posted a clip from my member's section with a note that I had "hacked in" but they caught me before I got the tons of other good shit.:Graucho

participation in google's image base is voluntary. If you don't want to be hotlinked, use robots.txt. Consider that a hotlinker won't be giving you the option to "opt-out" at all.

bingo

Darkystar,

Please tell me your the one that runs the yahoo egroup I had shut down this week.

If so your little threatening letters about me stopping the pictures was a joke.

Is hotlinking illegal ?

Well it's considered illegal enough that this week I had someones ISP account pulled, thier yahoo egroup pulled, and thier 4 websites taken down...

All it took was one nice little email from my attorney to the providers this hotlinking puke was using and a mention of the DMCA laws.

Man I need to borrow this one sometime:thumbsup



These guys were bad hotlinkers http://atlas.sexboards.com

But I think they host with Like Whoa, so......:1orglaugh

no you are wrong
after reading all the replies I won't let hotlinking on message board any more. As I said I was looking for constructive replies, not some brainless posts like yours.

special thanks to ZoiNk and iwantchixx for good posts :thumbsup

hotlinking is fucking theft.

not only are you stealing one guys content from his server, you're using his bandwidth making his bills go higher and higher.

As well, you can be charged with Denial of Service..