As anybody who attempts to link to an image on Blogography has found out, I have enabled hotlink protection for my site. I pretty much had to after some dumbass linked to a photo here (without asking) on a SlashDotted entry and ran my bandwidth allotment into the ground. I figure that if somebody is going to be using my images without permission, they might as well copy it to their own server instead of forcing me to host my content for them. It's not that I really care that people are taking my stuff (though giving credit to me when they do is always nice), it just seems lame for me to be expected to pay for it as well.
Since I was in an ass-drawing mood after creating my "fart quiz" yesterday, I went ahead and re-designed the image people see if they link to anything without asking first...
So yes, in effect, I am telling people who try and steal my bandwidth that they can kiss my ass. Still, it's pretty tame when you think about it. I could have used a photo of an actual ass (or something far, far worse). There are exceptions... a girl was making a site for a school project and wrote me a polite email asking if she could use the photo of a teddy bear I had posted... so natually I said "yes" and added her site to my list of allowed links. It's not a big deal really, I would probably be glad to do this for most anybody if they had a good enough reason for wanting me to do so.
And then I received an email from some ass-clown this morning ripping me to pieces because they were humiliated when they linked to one of my images in a Christian fellowship forum (a photo of a cool cherub statue at the Vatican). "You've destroyed my reputation and I should sue!"
Yeah, I thought that was pretty funny too, so I replied:
"Let me get this straight. You steal an image from me without asking permission, fail to give me credit for said image, and then threaten to sue me because you're not a very clever thief? Just exactly how big of a dumbass are you?"
To say that this did not go over very well is an understatement, because they wrote back and apparently I am now going to hell.
Whatever. I must have read the Christian Bible wrong, because I'm pretty sure there's something in there along the lines of "thou shalt not steal thy neighbor's bandwidth" (I could be wrong though, I'm a Buddhist after all).
I know another guy (a Swedish blogger) who found that one of his images of Bush was used as an Avatar on an American forum. The guy who "stole" that picture wrote a lot of critical texts about Kerry.
He who "hosted" the image for him thought it was a good idea to mess with him to get even, so he simply switched the Bush image to a campaign button from jonhkerry.com :)
I'd give anything for someone to rescue our blog ...it is soooo boring! I've been waitting for the spammers and blog whores to arrive.
Posted by strawberrie-shortcake on December 14, 2004 | Reply
Anti-campaign campaigning? Now THAT'S a clever use of hotlink protection! I still am a bit amazed that I was so vehemently chastised for my relatively tame hotlink image when I could have potentially used something so much worse... like hard core porn, for example. :-)
As for wanting spammers and blog whores to visit... be careful what you wish for, you just might get it! In fact, once you've had a blog for six months and its been indexed by Google and promoted by services like BlogExplosion, I can almost guarantee it. :-(
That's a GREAT STORY!! And don't worry. If you do go to hell, I'm sure you'll be in good company.
I had a situation where someone DID copy artwork of mine and then altered it, but it looked HORRIBLE! Without asking and without linking. Well I made him a new proper-looking graphic and made him link it to me. But you never know who's doing that to you!
Posted by Dave Diamond on December 14, 2004 | Reply
Are you worried about RSS aggregators that do not give a referrer in the http request?
Posted by Paul Westbrook on December 27, 2004 | Reply
I have mixed feelings about it. On the surface, I have no problem with aggregator sites which want to "borrow" content from my blog as long as the original source is credited and a link provided. To support that, I will gladly add the URL for any such site to my hotlink allowance list if credit is given (usually when I run across it in my error log or somebody writes to me and complains). That's why people who use sites like "Bloglines" to view my blog will have no problems seeing the proper images.
Of course, if they don't provide a referrer URL, there's nothing much I can do about it. Too many people steal too many photos and too much of my bandwidth for me to ever go back to my pre-hotlink days. So, on a deeper level, so long as my blog appears properly when people visit my site or use a feed reader, I'm happy. If aggregators are truly wanting to service their viewers, they'll format the requests with a referrer so those having to use hotlink protection can accommodate them.
I love comments! However, all comments are moderated, and won't appear until approved. Are you an abusive troll with nothing to contribute? Don't bother. Selling something? Don't bother. Spam linking? Don't bother.
PLEASE NOTE: My comment-spam protection requires JavaScript... if you have it turned off or are using a mobile device without JavaScript, commenting won't work. Sorry.
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