What actually is "Hotlinking"

dod

dod

dod

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Hotlinking is exactly what is going on in this case; the person is linking directly to the image rather than hosting it themselves.

You can prevent hotlinking through your server configuration files, although in this case you're probably better off going with the old "change the image they're linking to, to a large 'NO HOTLINKING' image and create a copy of the original to put back on your site" technique :)
 
he's credited your website there though, so it doesnt appear that he's trying to pass off the photo as his. if you dont want him using it anymore, change the filename of the photo, and leave a note in his guestbook telling him not to hotlink your images and stating that it'd have been nice if he'd asked permission to link to you and use your photos. regardless of whether he's credited you or not, he's still breaching copyrights there and could be liable to pay damages.
 
hi. I noticed you had this notice on your site ...

"If you simply wish to down load a copy for your own personal use please go ahead but please credit me with a link on your site or credit in any article."

he put a link on to your site. The only issue is the bandwidth. According to your terms he can download the picture and install it on his site.

or did I read that wrong?
 
You can automatically prevent the majority of hotlinking situations with an .htaccess in your document root, along with a small (<1KB) image. Just add a small note on the image with regards to hotlinking.

Changing the image, or having your hotlinking image as a massive jpeg negates the whole point of trying to stop hotlinking in the first place :).

Example .htaccess:
Code: 
RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(subdomain1.|subdomain2.|www.)?yourdomain(.co.uk|.com)/ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(|forums.|www.)?(overclockers|ocukmods)(.co.uk|.com)/ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !google. [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !search.yahoo. [NC]
RewriteRule .(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png|css|mp3|wmv|wma|mov)$ leech.png [NC]
Each line specifies which sites can hotlink your images, and the final rule specifies what filetypes the rules apply to and what any hotlinkers that you haven;t allowed get redirected to (in this case "leech.png")
I'm sure it could have some fine-tuning done. Watch out for spaces that vB inserts into the code.

As it's reliant on the HTTP_REFERER header, anyone spoofing it or switching it off will still be able to see hotlinked images - but this is not common enough to be an issue.
 
Thanks for the confirmation :)

blade007 said:
hi. I noticed you had this notice on your site ...

<snip>

or did I read that wrong?
Click to expand...
Nope, you read it absolutely right, I don't really mind them using the images (all of them on that particular site are mine) and even if I did there are copies of watermarked images on these guys sites all over the place. I took the pragmatic view that they'll use them anyway so a link is better than nothing for these.

I could put up a couple of dodgy pics but the only issue with that is there are kids as young as 5 in motocross and they do browse the sites, so I don't want to go down that route.

Thanks augmented, bit over my head but I'll try that.
 
how can you stop people linking to pages? (like how gamefaqs stop people linking directly to FAQs?)
there is one guy with a games website, but for one of his screenshot gallery links he just links to my own screenshot page. like he's trying to pass it off as his own work.
i don't care that much because obviously he's directing traffic my way, but it bug's me that there isn't the slightest reference to my site on his. :/


edit: obviously the first step would be to email him... but i want to know if there's anything i can do if he ignores the email / tells me to get lost etc...
 
Last edited:
seek said:
how can you stop people linking to pages? (like how gamefaqs stop people linking directly to FAQs?)
there is one guy with a games website, but for one of his screenshot gallery links he just links to my own screenshot page. like he's trying to pass it off as his own work.
i don't care that much because obviously he's directing traffic my way, but it bug's me that there isn't the slightest reference to my site on his. :/


edit: obviously the first step would be to email him... but i want to know if there's anything i can do if he ignores the email / tells me to get lost etc...
Click to expand...
I'm not sure how exactly this is possible (at the server software level, through a language such as PHP or even JavaScript) but the natural solution would be to add a snippet of code which checks the referrer (where the user is coming from), and if it matches the offending site, link them to a separate page saying something along the lines of "Just to let you know, this content is copyright.... made by..." etc. along with a link to the actual page.

You could have an automatic redirect (after 5-10 seconds, or whatever you want), insert a little note at the top of the page or even throw in a lightbox-esque message :)
 
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