Comments on: Are You a Hotlinking Thief?

By: freebeer2go

freebeer2go — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:12:42 +0000

Dude, did you even read the plugin's description? The plugin is to help you save bandwidth. It searches the hotlinker's post for hotlinked images and cache them locally on the hotlinker's server, so it is no longer a hot linked image, but a locally stored image. freebeer2go's last blog post..Population Growth Trends of Countries and Global Investing Strategy

By: Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Bailey — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:10:18 +0000

In my world, hotlinking is a strange issue. Since a copy of the image isn't made, it actually reduces or eliminates any question of copyright infringement. However, it raises a slew of other legal issues in its place. I always advise people to never hotlink images except from sources that permit it such as Flickr. If nothing else, it is bad manners. However, Webmasters can easily take steps to reduce or eliminate this threat. I don't think the onus should be on Webmasters to prevent it, but there is no harm in taking a few steps if practical. Still, I have to agree, hotlinking without permission is always a bad idea. Jonathan Bailey's last blog post..Plagiarism Today on the WordPress Podcast

By: Frank C

Frank C — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 23:01:11 +0000

I understand where you're coming from, Lizzie. It really depends on your objectives with the media, do you want it to be proprietary to your site or do you want to use it like advertising for your site? My outlook has really come full circle from where it used to bother me when people hotlinked, just like it does you, to where I use it as a link and traffic building tool in some cases. Frank C's last blog post..Your Blog Monetization Options: Part V - Paid Reviews