Good Things To Know: Preventing Hotlinking

[permetaform]

copy-pasted wholesale from silverthoughts with permission

First, I've turned off direct linking a long time ago. You can do it via your own Cpanel which never really worked for me. So, I created an .htaccess file with the help of this wizard:

http://www.htmlbasix.com/disablehotlinking.shtml

Just follow the instructions but remember to include only the URLS that you want to be able to hotlink from.

I also created a direct linking image (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/silverhawk/layout/linker.jpg) in place of it and uploaded it at a free image host so it will always direct itself somewhere else and no longer on my domain. I create it big, I create it bright because believe it or not, a lot of them have pretty layouts.

I also write a note on my site that if anyone direct links, they only get that direct linking image and I let them see it.

If I do catch someone direct linking, I write them an email [...] to explain why direct linking is wrong, [...] and this link to tell them if they can't read English, it's all translated here:

http://www.obsess-much.com/directlinking

And then I shoot them a suggestion for free image hosting providers so they have no excuse to not save it to their own site:

http://silverthoughts.net/rightclicklick/faq1.html

and then tell them to remove or I will report them to their ISP as a violation to the terms of their host. Most tell me to fuck off. Someone called me a bitch and didn't care what I did so I reported her to DeadJournal abuse and I had her Deadjournal deleted.

Comments

[maymorning.livejournal.com]

Oh boy have I had the hotlinking thing done to me! I have a stack of fanlistings and it really ticks me off when folks try to join one while still hotlinking. The worst culprits are those kids with Polish or Italian blogs. Some understand and upload the buttons to a photobucket account, but the others don't care. Ah well, I have that htaccess thing in all my domains and all they get is a black with a red cross in it.