Hotlinking Images

What is hotlinking and bandwidth theft?

Definition: The term hot linking refers to the practice of linking to an object, usually an image or a video, from where it is housed on a website or server to a second website, without permission.

Hot linking is considered to be bad manners on the Web, since it includes linking to or embedding an image or video that is stored on someone else's website or server, where that image or video is being stored. The hot link gives the impression that the content is hosted on the hot linking website, rather than from the originating website, contributing potential traffic, influence, or authority to the offending site.  Also known as "Bandwidth theft." 

An example would be using an <img> tag to display a JPEG image you found on someone else's web page so it will appear on your own site, eBay auction listing, weblog, forum message post, etc. 

Bandwidth refers to the amount of data transferred from a web site to a user's computer. When you view a web page, you are using that site's bandwidth to display the files. Since web hosts charge based on the amount of data transferred, bandwidth is an issue. If a site is over its monthly bandwidth, it's billed for the extra data or taken offline.

A simple analogy for bandwidth theft: Imagine a random stranger plugging into your electrical outlets, using your electricity without your consent, and you paying for it. 

How Do I know I am hotlinking?

This is how you might display an image graphic file in the HTML on your own web page:

<img src="image.jpg" height="350" width="200">

This tag tells the site to request the file image.jpg on the same server as the rest of the files on the site. If you were to hotlink an image from an outside server, the HTML might look like this:

<img src="http://notmysite.com/image.jpg" height="350" width="200">

This tag tells the site to request the image.jpg from a different server other than your own. Every time the page is loaded, the outside server has to use its bandwidth to display the image. To avoid this problem, don't link to files on servers that don't belong to you. 

Why should I stop hotlinking?

Hotlinking can have a lot of undesirable consequences. One is the so-called "switcheroo". If you've linked to an image on someone's server, what's to prevent them from changing the image you linked to? This can have humorous results. Since most sites, forums, etc. have strict policies about offensive images, it wouldn't take much for an aggravated webmaster you've been stealing bandwidth from to shut you down completely with an unwanted "switcheroo". 

Displaying an image or file that doesn't belong to you could be a violation of copyright, making you open to litigation. The owner of the file could utilize
DMCA law to have your site shut down and your information given for use in legal proceedings. 

 


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