Sponsor |  WinstonS | Feb 25, 2005 5:23pm | | I was wondering if there any formal rules on what photos can be posted on a Stumbler's page or in the public forums. I've seen several that have tags from various websites, etc. is that kosher? |
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Sponsor | | CastorQuinn | Feb 25, 2005 5:49pm | Stealing bandwidth by hotlinking an image on a website is seen by some as being pretty poor form, but there's no actual rule about that. Posting images that are clearly marked as being from another website is perfectly fine, if you are stumbling that page and then commenting it by posting an image.
In the forums though, unless you have a good reason to post an image I'm not sure why you would want to, unless it's a picture forum you are posting to. Again, so long as you credit the site the image came from, usually by way of a link, you should be fine. And again, it's not a rule as such, but hotlinking is seen as bad form by many. |
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Sponsor | | CastorQuinn | Feb 25, 2005 5:56pm | If I have an image up on my website, using my website's bandwidth to display it, it's my image. If you decide to provide a link directly to my image on my website, so that it displays on your stumble profile, then that is hotlinking.
If however you copy my image to your own webserver, or upload it to Photo Bucket or one of those image hosting services, and then link to it there, you do not steal my bandwidth.
Since many sites have low bandwidth, stealing bandwidth in this way is often considered to be generally poor form. However it's not clear whether it counts as actual theft. |
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Sponsor | | tigerdragonbrand | Feb 25, 2005 5:59pm | | Ah... Thank you! I'm beginning to understand. What do we do when we photoblog it? By that I mean, using the StumbleUpon Toolbar tool. |
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Sponsor | | CastorQuinn | Feb 25, 2005 6:03pm | That's hotlinking, which is why many of us refuse to photoblog, prefering instead to grab the image ourselves and manually link to it. Although that is a massive pain in the arse, and even the best of us sometimes hotlink.
Basically if you are a heavy photoblogger, if half your comments are images, consider getting a PhotoBucket account. It's free, though cumbersome. If you only post images rarely, you could probably ignore the little guilty voice in your head whenever you steal someone else's internet resources.
Many big sites will actually remove the image or replace it with a "Please stop stealing our bandwidth" image that will appear in place of the image you are trying to link, so beware. |
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Sponsor | | Hapax | Feb 25, 2005 6:12pm | 6 I'm only slowly getting the hang of these issues also, so I hope you won't mind fielding another, and possibly pretty stupid, question, CQ.
While I see the point about stealing bandwith, as long as the link to the original site is given, hotlinking seemed to me not much different from regular hypertext - after all, you could blow somebody's usage limit by simply directing a lot of traffic to their site via a link that says "nude pics of Donald Rumsfeld" or somesuch.
On the other hand, copying the image to your own space and simply using it from there would strike me as genuinely infringing someone elses intellectual property rights.
Have I got this assways? |
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Sponsor | | tigerdragonbrand | Feb 25, 2005 6:17pm | I had absolutely NO idea. Thank you very very much! :) I have a photobucket account, plenty of space. I had no idea what bandwidth meant. (It's still a little fuzzy *g*) Yes, while I haven't seen that exact 'stop stealing bandwidth' message, I've seen other messages, or the image is just mysteriously blocked. Thanks for much for the lesson. Very appreciated. :)
nude pics of Donald Rumsfeld--honestly, some folks have real issues! ;) |
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Sponsor | | CastorQuinn | Feb 25, 2005 6:26pm | Hapax, the only dumb question is the one that isn't asked. I didn't know this stuff before I started asking people.
A hyperlink simply sends you to someone's site. However if you hotlink an image, then that person's site isn't being seen, yours is, but using the other person's bandwidth.
Think of it the other way. You make a website that has images on it. You design the site, write a lot of content, and put the thing together so it looks good. Now, instead of people coming and looking at your site, they instead go and look at my site, where I have hotlinked an image of the bits of your site I thought were best. And you have to pay for me to do this.
That's why some people don't like it. However it's not a straightforward issue. I still hotlink on occassion, and I used to do it all the time. |
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Sponsor | | Comely1 | Feb 25, 2005 6:45pm | Hotlinking images and other files is a common practice on the internet but the legal issues concerning hotlinking are still in the grey area of the law. Nonetheless hotlinking an image without permission is usually not advised and could cause the website that hosts that image or file more money in bandwidth bills.
That said: this site has a test for hotlinking. A "hotlink-tester"
quickblog.com/hotlinkers/ [quickblog.com/hotlinkers/] |
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