Hotlinking - And why it's prohibited.

[Rockyraccoon]

Hello all,

I need to mention a few things about hotlinking.

First off let me describe what hotlinking is.

Let's say site A has a picture of big foot hosted on it's website.

Site B is a message board or other kind of website where folks can freely add input. A member likes the picture of big foot and copies it's web address and then posts it on site B using the URL tags.

Now, when anybody opens the site B page with the big foot link, it will display the picture, however, instead of charging site B for the transfer bandwidth, it charges the original site A for the bandwidth.

So in the end, Site A has to pay more for bandwidth even though people are not directly accessing their site.

Our board sponsors and proboards strongly prohibit hotlinking as do most laws of the internet.

Another example would be some of Hugh's fly pictures from his website. Naturally he can hot link them anywhere he wants, but if someone else does, well they are stealing bandwidth from Hugh......Of course Hugh probably wouldn't mind....I was just using his site for an example.

So, to work legally around this. If you find an image that you'd like to post or use as an avatar. First, find out if it's copyrighted or private. If it is you can possibly contact for permission.

Then once you have permission to use the picture, host it on your own website or your picture hosting site (the moderators here can help with hosting pics). Once the picture is hosted in a friendly place, you can go about linking the picture just like you would normally.

I understand that this can be a pain in the hind side, but it is the law and we might as well follow the better safe than sorry attitude.

If anybody has any questions about it I'd be happy to help out. And like I said, Myself or any of the other moderators can assist with hosting a picture for our members if they think Hotlinking may be an issue.

Thanks Folks.

[chuckwagon]

Hey Rocky,
I am not sure If I did a "HOTLinking" Thingy or not?

I did forward a pic of the gorden fly to a buddy just to intensify his interest.

Sorry if I did wrong. Let me know if I did the bad deed. Honestly didn't do it intentionally if I did.

Thanks,

Trey
CW

[Rockyraccoon]

Hey Trey,

Not at all, nobody did anything wrong. I just got to looking at things here a week or so back and after reading our terms of service from proboards.....I figured I'd announce about it just to let folks know what it is and that we're not suppose to do it. If folks have hotlinked in the past it's probably more my fault for not filling folks in anyway.

You can still post links to other sites, or pm other sites for folks to visit.....this way, the other sites are using their bandwidth and your on their site, instead of you viewing their stuff, on their bandwidth, at this or another different site.

Like I said, no problems for us as long as we know what it is and the reasons why we shouldn't do it. IT will probably cause it to take a little bit longer to post a picture that you found on the net, and in some cases you may not be able to post it at all (this is where a direct link to the other site would work well), however, if you follow through with the aforementioned instructions, most pictures will still be able to be posted, as long as not copyrighted and permission granted.

On a sidenote, not including possible prosecution, if a website finds that your hotlinking some of their pictures, they could go in and edit their site so that the picture that has been hijacked is changed to a picture of.....let's say.... "A peta activist waving a gay rights flag". While meaning no offense to anybody......it would stink to have your avatar suddenly outing you as a peta person who is fighting for gay rights (unless of course your gay and with peta, in which case let's say outing you as a chairperson for the NRA and Ducks Unlimited). That really doesn't sound too PC but I mean no harm....lol

[chuckwagon]

So, If I post a pix here from my camera. And then you go ahead and forward that pix to someone elses personal e-mail. That is OK?

Just curious.

Thanks,
Trey

[Rockyraccoon]

Sure. This only applies to pictures that we do not own, and are hosted at a site that you have no affiliation with, without their permission.

[standard]

Gosh, Rocky, I'd love to get that PETA picture as my avatar. I just love that group. People Eating Tasty Animals really is appealing to me. ;D

When that little girl at UGA was passing out brochures for the group and asked me if I loved animals, I eagerly responded, "YES! Fricaséed, deep-fried, roasted, grilled, broiled, boiled, broasted, pan-fried, stewed, most especially, barbequed. Yum, yum!"

[tnrebel]

May 25, 2010 19:41:51 GMT -5 standard said:

Gosh, Rocky, I'd love to get that PETA picture as my avatar. I just love that group. People Eating Tasty Animals really is appealing to me. ;D

When that little girl at UGA was passing out brochures for the group and asked me if I loved animals, I eagerly responded, "YES! Fricaséed, deep-fried, roasted, grilled, broiled, boiled, broasted, pan-fried, stewed, most especially, barbequed. Yum, yum!"