Hotlinking is the term used to describe linking to an image on someone elses server, and showing the image on your own site, often without permission of the image owner or host. Some webmasters prefer you to host the image on your own server as linking to the image on their server consumes the limited bandwith they pay for, thus costing them extra in server bills, and in extreme cases shutting them down.
These days bandwidth limits are much larger and so usually, people do not run a risk of falling short on the bandwidth limit due to hotlinking. Some webmasters just don’t like it for copyright reasons and may also feel that it’s a sign of disrespect or just plain theft.
To counteract these bandwidth stealers, webmasters can install scripts which lead any direct image links to an alternative image of their choice, and this is where they are also able to express disgust / opinion / revenge. These samples are the more polite of the anti hotlinking images available, as they can often contain porn or shocking imagery. It can be very embarrassing for the webmaster as they often don’t know the image has been hotlink-proofed until the offensive message or image is on their own website.
For all we know webmasters who trackback to this page may replace their current hotlinking message with something more rude or shocking, so be prepared.
About the Curator
Marc Kremers is a co-founder of As-Found, and currently works at Hi-ReS! in London.
Tex-Server
Hi-ReS!
