I think it is well past time that we had an announcement on this subject. For those of you that are not aware of what hotlinking is, please carefully read this definition:

Link

Also, from the same site:

When someone finds a picture on the internet and decides to copy the web address and post it here, that person is in fact stealing from the website that they found the picture on. This practice could also put this community at risk, and that is something I'm sure none of us wants. Hotlinking is inconsiderate and it is a form of theft, and it should never be practiced here, or anywhere else.

If you come across a picture that you want to post here, you should first check the other website and look to see if the owner of that site has any objections to others using their picture(s). Normally, if they do, they will clearly have a message that reads something like: "Please do not use any images on this website" or the message will request that you ask for permission to use the picture(s). Other times, there will be a message that simply states that all pictures are free to be used.

Let's say now that you have permission to use a picture and you want to post it here. What you need to do is save that picture to your computer, and then upload it to a website that allows image hosting. Photobucket is an example of a website that allows you to upload pictures from your computer and then share those pictures with others all over the internet. This is the proper way to do it.

This is how it must be done here at W2JP. Hotlinked images will be removed by staff if they come across a post with an image that is hotlinked.

Questions and/or comments on this subject can be posted here.

I use Photobucket, but hopefully I'm not doing that when I'm not.

I wuvs my photobucket. It's better to have files on your own spot, anyway, where you have easy access to them.

It's very easy to know if you are hotlinking or not. If you simply take a picture's URL off of a website and insert it into a post, you are hotlinking.

Oh, ok. I'm pretty sure I haven't. :P

EoG, do you mean we're not allowed to hotlink in posts (for example, inserting a picture in a reply) or do you mean in avatars / sigs?

The reason I ask is because some image hosters delete your images after say, six months. So if you're like me and you only update your sig once in a million years your image will break, whereas in a post it won't matter because 99% of posts are abandoned by then anyway :)

Oh, you can still post as many pictures as you want in posts, but the hotlinking rule applies to each and every image used. There is to be no hotlinking in posts, signatures, avatars, personal photos, or anywhere else.

This topic only exists so that we can prevent bandwidth theft. You're a good example Razzie since you operate your own gallery, so get ready for some free exposure. :P

On your site, you have this notice posted:

You give permission for visitors to use certain images from your gallery. Now if they come across a picture that they want to use somewhere else on the internet, it would be wrong and constitute theft if they simply took the URL of that picture and used that URL elsewhere. That taps into your bandwidth and leeches off of the amount of bandwidth you are allotted. I don't know if there is a limit to how much bandwidth you are permitted, but a lot of free sites and pay sites can only endure a certain amount of traffic over a certain amount of time before they exceed their allotment. When that happens, the site is either taken offline temporary/permanently, or the owner is billed for the additional bandwidth. This, of course, is not a good thing.

The proper way for someone to use a picture off of your gallery would be to save the image to their computer, and then upload it to either their own webspace or a free host that allows hotlinking. :)

Ah, now I get it :)

Nobody can hotlink anything directly from Jurassic Gallery because GeoCities automatically prevents it - I don't know how it works, but you can only see images if you're on the page the image was intended for :)

As for my main JP site, it looks like you can hotlink so I have to make sure nobody swipes images straight from there!! :Woah