[Enablingwolf]

I am curious, how many think hot linking files directly is stealing?

Scenario:

You find a file on the net. You like it and want to share, so you take the liberty of just linking the file as you choose without regard of who is actually paying for the files bandwidth..

I would like to hear from both sides of the coin.

If you do believe hot linking files is acceptable. Please give a intelligent statement as to why it is ok.

If your an owner of a site and pay for bandwidth. How do you feel about it. If it irks you or eats more bandwidth then you find acceptable. How do you deal with it?

[Sucka]

I think it's ok. Reason being, it's posted to be seen. If the person did not want the content seen/used he would make it private/passworded. That's the way i look at it.

[ihrsetrdr]

I like to include images in my posts; years ago I used to just grab a url of an image I found on google search and just pasted it into the image feature in the message editor. Well, I got a PM from another forum member telling me I should really really take a look at the post that had a hot linked image in. Whoa! In place of the PG rated image I had posted was a veeery raw porn image that the site owner had pointed the original image's link to. That cured me, since then I just download an image I want off google image search, then upload it to my Yahoo file manager.

Do I think it's stealing? I don't know, but someone else is paying for the bandwidth, and linking does use up a part of their bandwidth quota. Just because the owner of the bandwidth didn't take proper security measures, doesn't give others the right to use it.

[TalRW]

I think you should rehost it. I mean Sucka's argument that it is hosted because it is ment to be seen is semi-valid. The thing is the person who puts it up likely wants it to be seen on THEIR website. If they wanted to put it up just for the sake of just to be seen like in sucka's case they would probably host it in some sort of web photo album like flickr or picasa web albums. But if it's hosted on someones personal website or something they probably want you to view it from their actual website Because they want to generate traffic to their site. If you just hot link an image their bandwith gets used but no one is actually visiting their site. What I do is I save the image and just upload it to imageshack.us because that is what it is designed for to host pictures so they can be linked.

I think it's even worse if they specifically request for you not to and you do it anyways

[Enablingwolf]

So far I got some good points to ponder.


ihrsetrdr,
You bring up a point close to what gave me the idea of why I posted my question.

I normally create a folder when I link in forums. That way if a fellow member would like to use the image I host on my personal site and space is wanted to be used it can be. I made one mistake of hosting a few( actually 10) vids open link. oops my bad. lol I knew exactly what forum the person was a member of too. lol I create a folder for each forum I link in. In a way it is fun to see how files are used. It is worth the few gigs a month. So far this forum has been the easiest one in leeching. No major issues.

About a week goes by and next thing I notice a site with advertising has my vids hotlinked. I actually thought of bieng a tool and replacing the files. I thought lets be a good netcitizen. I email the owner of the domain and asked them to host the vids on their own space. Pretty much no reply. So my money was helping them generate revenue..At my cost. I lost 4gigs of transfer on that one domain and the vids. I would not of had a care if there was no ads. My site is not about ads or showing boobies. Like the site what was leeching off me. So in protection of my good name, I pulled the files and replaced them.

I did not do what I wanted to do. I asked for help in making things right and just simply replaced the file with I steal bandwidth vids files. I did however plug my domain into the vid as as haha. I got a nasty email saying how childish I was to do that.


I still would like input on folks opinions on the topic. Seeing the general thoughts on the widest scoope I can get.

More opinions are wanted still. There is more involved then my lil spot here, I want to get a wide sample as possible on the general thought of hot linking files.

Thank you

[DvBoard]

Personally it depends on the bandwidth that it's going to use. If it's a single picture file, then i hotlink it. if it's better i either link to the site that hosts it, or host it myself.

[Thelemac]

IMO, if you're going to use the work that another person created, you should ask permission. Whether it's linking or rehosting, somebody else went to the effort to create it for a specific purpose. Many times the work you find is on a site with ads, which is what supports the creation of the work.

If you do use it, you should, at the very least, link back to the place you got it from stating that that's where you got it.

[Enablingwolf]

Originally Posted by Thelemac

IMO, if you're going to use the work that another person created, you should ask permission. Whether it's linking or rehosting, somebody else went to the effort to create it for a specific purpose. Many times the work you find is on a site with ads, which is what supports the creation of the work.

If you do use it, you should, at the very least, link back to the place you got it from stating that that's where you got it.

This also gives them a boost in page rank too. To most site owners this is a good thing. Some owners relish having that high page ranking.