What is Hotlinking?
First off, thank you all for the supportive comments you've left me in regards to my rant about my problems with bandwidth and graphic theft. I'm taking a lot of your suggestions into consideration and am currently working on implementing a few of them. I'm really happy to know that I have your understanding and support in dealing with this- so thank you again! *hugs + smiles*

Another purpose of this post is really to clear up some questions about what hotlinking (aka direct linking) really means and why it upsets me (and many others) so much. Over the past few days, I've received several worried questions about it- and it made me realize that it's still a term that some may not be familiar with, so I thought I'd explain a bit.

Before we begin, here is an example of a page that has hotlinked to my images and downloads (not to mention taking my textures without permission...but that's another issue entirely -_-). If you check the URL of those previews, icons, and downloads- you will notice that it directly leads to my server. It's the same exact one I use for my journal here. Which means this person is literally using the bandwidth from the server that I'm paying for. That is called hotlinking.



In simplest terms, hotlinking is when you're directly linking to someone else's file instead of uploading it to your own server and linking from there. That is a big no no for most people online, regardless whether the person is using a paid or free service to host their files. Why? Paid hosting service doesn't come cheap- with bandwidth usually being the most expensive part. If you hotlink to someone's files, you're using the bandwidth they've paid for...and many would view it as pretty much the same thing as stealing their money. Bandwidth gets used up- and when that happens, you get charged pretty ridiculously for going over your limit. This is especially a problem for sites that already use a lot of bandwidth as it is. The last thing they need is for hotlinkers to add on to that load by stealing.

Now in terms of a free service- chances are, they're limited to an even smaller amount of bandwidth allowance. If you hotlink, you use up their bandwidth even quicker- which would result in a lot of "bandwidth exceeded" errors, etc. Then no one can see the images and it just pisses everyone off. Either way, the outcome is never nice when your files get hotlinked.

The best way to go about ensuring that you don't hotlink to anything is to always save the file to your computer and then upload it on to your own host/server before you put it up somewhere. This way, you're using your own bandwidth and not stealing someone else's. Of course, you should always check to make sure that the owner of said file actually allows you to take it and put it up somewhere. :\

That said, if you want to learn more about hotlinking- here's a great site that explains this. And finally, for those who are worried that you're hotlinking by just clicking on the download links of my resources- please know that you're not hotlinking. I've put the links up so that you can download it. :) It's the act of taking that link and putting it somewhere else that's the problem. :p

I hope I've managed to explain this clearly enough- and that you'll find this helpful. I'm sorry that I've been making a lot of boring posts lately. I haven't been able to bring myself to upload a new texture set to the public until I get this issue at least semi-under control...which should hopefully be soon. :p I hate not having this journal functioning normally. :(

ETA 10/25/2005: I also want to say thanks to everyone who has explained and suggested htaccess. I do already know what it is and have used it countless times before at all my websites. There was just a reason why I never used it for my graphics at this journal before. I probably will have to resort to this in the end- though I have to make some changes before I can do that. But I will get it sorted out- promise! :p