I was going through my referrers today and the usual suspects were there along with a site I had seen in the past that was hotlinking to an image of mine. It was especially evil as it was being used as a 
background on their page. A few months ago I decided to just rename the image on my local server and change the reference to it on my own site hoping that by breaking the link the perpetrator would simply fix the issue on their end. I felt that this was a very nice way to deal with an offender (I wasn’t so nice in the past…more on that later) and thought it would resolve itself. Unfortunately this person didn’t get the hint so today I decided to go to plan b.
I decided to create an image with a message to get their attention. So I quickly opened my program, typed the message and saved it. I then uploaded the image to my server where the site was still referencing it and voila (Link1 & Link2), a nice loud message now appears as the background on the site. I’m thinking about starting a pool to see how long it lasts. I’m guessing about a week.
I think I’m being pretty civilized about this issue but that wasn’t the case a few years back. I had the same scenario and decided to be a bit more evil about it. I found a pretty raunchy sexually explicit goatse picture and replaced the image being linked with it. I anxiously waited to see what happened next. To my amazement I got an email from the owner of the site in a panic asking me to help replace the image with the original one they had hotlinked and he was even nice enough to send me the username and password for his ftp server in the email as well, assuming I would 
be more than willing to help. Well after 5 minutes of maniacal laughter I determined this person was pretty hopeless and I went ahead and deleted the image. I especially like how I found pictures (presumably from the site owner) that appear to show a reaction that may occur when they see the page. Hehehe…
Does anyone else have a funny hotlinking story to tell?
(Update 3/25 11:58pm PST…I just checked and the site has been changed to no longer reference the image. No mention of what happened…life as usual)
I think I need to do something like this. I’d go the raunchy route, though – so called “web designers” need to have more tact than to hotlink. It’s just rude. :)
I think I need to do something like this. I’d go the raunchy route, though – so called “web designers” need to have more tact than to hotlink. It’s just rude. :)
That’s really funny!
How do you know if someone’s hotlinking to you (sorry, I’m a noob).
That’s really funny!
How do you know if someone’s hotlinking to you (sorry, I’m a noob).
I read a recent article that a presidential candidate was hotlinking a contact image on myspace and the owner changed the image location. Sorry, don’t have a source.
I read a recent article that a presidential candidate was hotlinking a contact image on myspace and the owner changed the image location. Sorry, don’t have a source.
How funny…messing with a political candiate could present tons of fun.
Kelly, hot linking is when somebody steals an image…and not by saving and placing on their on server but instead they use an html to source the image from the site they are stealing it from.
So in my case they were using hope that explains it.
Mark
How funny…messing with a political candiate could present tons of fun.
Kelly, hot linking is when somebody steals an image…and not by saving and placing on their on server but instead they use an html to source the image from the site they are stealing it from.
So in my case they were using)
hope that explains it.
Mark
I know what the term means but how do you know if someone’s linking to your image?
I know what the term means but how do you know if someone’s linking to your image?
Oh…go through your logs or service that you use to track your site activity and look for referrer information.
Oh…go through your logs or service that you use to track your site activity and look for referrer information.
Hi, where did you get this information can you please support this with some proof or you may say some good reference as I and others will really appreciate. This information is really good and I will say will always be helpful if we try it risk free. So if you can back it up. That will really help us all. And this might bring some good repute to you.
What is this state’s software, I occurrence? Looks wonderful!