So you found a picture at Elfwood you really, really like, and you put it up on your webpage, but when you look at your site, all you get is this:

Hot-linked? What's that? Why is that a bad thing? Where's the pretty picture?

Sit back and grab some snacks. I'll take you through the basics of bandwidth.

What is Bandwidth

A webpage is hosted on a server. The server is a computer that is hooked up to the Internet all the time (hopefully). Hosting means that your webpage, all the html pages and the images, are on that server. When you sign up for webpage hosting, you get a certain amount of space (actual megabytes on the server that your html pages and images use up) and a certain amount of bandwidth. Bandwidth is the amount of information that your server will deal with for you.

Suppose my webpage is one html page that is 50 kb and three images that are 150 kb apiece. My total space used on the server is 500 kb. I tell three of my friends about the page and they all go look at it. Now, all three of those files have been looked at three times, and my bandwidth use is 1500 kb. Say I purchase some advertising and 52 more people come look at my site. Now my bandwidth usage measures 27500 kb! The more people that look at the files, the more the bandwidth goes up. The larger the file that the people are looking at, the more the bandwidth goes up.

Hotlinking

Now suppose that someone really likes one of my pictures. They have their own webpage, and they code my image into their page. Every time someone looks at *their* webpage, they are looking at the image hosted on *my* server. This is called hotlinking, and is often referred to as bandwidth theft. My bandwidth goes up... and up... and up... but nobody sees my webpage! If a lot of people look at that other persons webpage, it is very likely that I will get charged for going over my hosting plan's allotted bandwidth. The other guy? He's way under his hosting plan bandwidth, because all that is being looked at from his server is the html file!

Not all hosting services will allow this to happen. They have code on their servers that checks to see what page the image is being requested from, and if that page doesn't match the hosted webpage, they block the image, and usually replace it with something that says 'no hotlinking' or 'you do not have authorization to use this' or 'bad user! no dessert!'

Now you want to show it off, maybe use it for the background of your livejournal or just put it up on your webpage. So how do you do that without getting a nasty-gram from the webpage you found the picture on? Simple! Host it yourself. Save the image file onto your own computer and then upload it onto your own web server.

Unfortunately, most free web hosts do not allow you to hotlink to pictures except from pages hosted from their server. This is because those free services usually have advertising embedded into their pages, and they don't want people to be able to use their services without looking at their ads! Though you can't hotlink to pictures at these sites, you can still get to them by copying the exact URL into the navigation bar of your browser.

That still won't put pretty backgrounds into your livejournal, of course. So you may be limited to those free services that do allow hotlinking, or perhaps paying for a very basic hosting plan out of your own pocket. You might also find a friend with some of their own webspace who doesn't use all of the bandwidth that comes with their plan who is willing to share with you.

Basic Netiquette

'Netiquette' is a play on the word 'etiquette,' and is a definition of what is right and polite and how to act on-line. It is not necessarily law! Laws have not caught up with the Internet age, and the wording of the law is applied to Internet problems on a case-by-case basis at this time, with little to no precedent to look back on.

So let's take a quick look at what is polite in regards to using other peoples images.

Don't ever, ever hotlink to an image on someone else's server, even if you have permission to use an image!

Don't just link to an image, do link to the webpage it is part of. If you found a pretty picture on-line, and you want other people to see it without bothering to set up your own page to host it, don't resort to putting a textlink to the image file. This is still stealing bandwidth, because anyone who clicks on the link will see the image (and use bandwidth), but not the webpage it is hosted on! Often, artists are trying to sell their work through their webpage, and the least you can do is give them a chance to make that sales pitch when you show off their picture.

Don't ever display an image on your webpage without permission, even if you host it yourself. Some artists have very strong opinions about seeing their work on someone else's webpage, no matter how you host it, credit it or praise them to the skies. Read an artist's usage policy before you walk off with their work! If you can't find specifics on their page, email them. A lack of reply is not permission by default. Linking to a webpage is not something you generally need to ask permission for.

Don't use an image without crediting the artist. By using an image without crediting an artist, you are implying to any random person that you created the work. If you don't know who the artist is, find out! In some cases, it might not be that easy to credit the artist, so consider listing credits on your userpage or as the name of your icon or avatar. One easy way to credit an artist is to put their name in the image file name. Instead of calling the file purplefairy.jpg, call it janedoe-purplefairy.jpg.

Whenever possible, link to the artist's webpage! An artist who actually gets some return from their generosity in terms of popularity and traffic to their webpage is an artist who continues to graciously allow others to use their work.

As an Artist

What can you do to prevent someone from stealing your bandwidth?

In extreme measures, you can add script to your page that disables hotlinking from any page outside of your website. Remember, though, that this will mean *you* can't hotlink to any pictures in that folder, either.

You can disable right-clicking and viewing source on your webpage so that a potential thief can't discover the path to your image. This may inhibit some people from browsing the way that they wish to, however.

You can chop your pictures up into little pieces so that someone would have to hotlink to a whole bunch of different images. This will deter most thieves, since they're usually a lazy lot looking for the easiest way to get images with the least work.

Monitor your stats carefully! Most webhosting comes with comprehensive usage statistics (stats) and will list the top several files as sorted by hits (number of people who view them). If an image file is getting a whole bunch of hits and the page it is on isn't, it is likely that your image is being hotlinked! Most stats also show where hits are coming from, and it can be easy to find your culprit that way.

Name your files with your own name embedded in them. Most thieves do not bother to change the filenames, even when they host the files themselves, and you can find these files using a search engine (you'll be sore out of luck doing a search for dragon.jpg!).

If you are particularly concerned with incorrect usage, put text on your image, including your name, copyright information and URL, or watermark it with a distinctive logo. This text does not have to be garish or invasive to be a part of the image, though it should be incorporated into the image such that it can't easily be cropped or erased out.

What next?

Usually, a polite cease-and-desist letter from the victim of bandwidth theft will stop the thief. Sometimes the easiest thing to do is rename the file and leave the thief with a little red x. Many people will replace the hotlinked file with a message of varying degrees of rudeness informing any viewers that the image has been used without permission.

Most cases of bandwidth theft are by people who simply don't know better. This kind of theft will continue as long as there remain people who are uneducated about how the system works and what is the right and polite thing to do. Perhaps the best thing you can personally do is educate people and monitor yourself. When you find people hotlinking to pictures in their blogs or on their webpage, politely and privately inform them about a proper method. If they don't respond or reply defensively, inform the victim of their action so that they can take the necessary steps. Remember that an interested observer has no rights in the matter, and can convolute the issue enormously once they are past that initial polite and private attempt at education.