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Hotlinking is the direct linking of files on another server, often images, audio, or video files. It can reduce bandwidth and violate copyright laws. Website owners can monitor hotlinking through access logs and use hotlink protections. Some legitimate uses include multiple websites and advertising programs. Hotlinking is not polite and can lead to copyright lawsuits. Responses include changing images, installing hotlink protections, and watermarking images. People can ask for permission to use images and use Creative Commons to find freely usable media.
A hotlink is a direct link in an HTML file to a file on another server. While there are some legitimate uses for hotlinks, in many cases they are a source of irritation, because they can reduce bandwidth as well as violate copyright laws or take media out of context. Images are most commonly hotlinked, along with audio and video files. There are several ways to combat unwanted hotlinks if you’ve noticed bandwidth drain that you suspect is related to hotlinking.
To understand hotlinking a little better, look at the image on the left of this article. This image is stored on the wiseGEEK server, and if you viewed the source of this page, you may find its location. If you displayed this image on your webpage by linking to wiseGEEK’s location, wiseGEEK would pay for the bandwidth used each time the photograph is uploaded. Unfortunately for the would-be image hotlinker wiseGEEK, wiseGEEK has protections in place on its servers to prevent hotlinking, but you get the general idea.
Monitoring hotlinking is generally easy to do for website owners who keep track of their site’s statistics. If you notice a sudden spike in bandwidth usage, you may want to check your site’s access logs to see if people repeatedly access a specific file, which suggests hotlinking. Most hosting providers offer different tracking services to help their customers monitor their bandwidth usage.
There are some legitimate reasons to use a hotlink. Some people have multiple websites, for example, and may want to view content stored on one server on another site. Many advertising programs also use hotlinks to place their material on customer pages. Sites like Flickr and YouTube allow users to link to material stored on their servers so that people can embed videos and photographs on their websites. However, many hotlinks are not legitimate, in which case hotlinking may be called piggy-backing, sapping, or leeching, referring to the bandwidth used by hotlinking.
In the general sense of Internet etiquette, a hotlink is not polite because it steals someone else’s bandwidth. For photographers and other creative professionals, hotlinks are irritating because many people use them to pass off creative material as their own or to view that material out of context. In some cases, a hotlink can lead to a copyright lawsuit. Many site owners understand that people link out of ignorance rather than malice and generally send polite requests to break the hotlink before taking more aggressive action.
There are a variety of responses to hotlinking, ranging from changing your youthful image to installing hotlink protections on your servers. In the case of a switcharoo, an irritated website owner might replace the original image with an offensive, funny, or out-of-context image to alert the hotlinker of his mistake. Many hosting companies also provide hotlink support in the form of code that will deny hotlink requests; this service is not generally available with free or low-cost hosting, although you can always check.
Using server safeguards will not stop people from stealing material from your site by downloading it and then hosting it on their own servers. Many photographers like to watermark their images to make stealing less appealing. If you see an image you like, ask the person who owns it if it’s okay to use it. Many people are happy to let you use their work, as long as you give the artist credit and download the image to your hard drive before uploading it to a server you pay for, or a free file sharing service like flickr. You can also use a service like Creative Commons to search for media that you can freely use, edit, and share.
