Hot Linkin' to Hell
I've been seeing a distinct increase recently in the number of sites hotlinking to my various image collections, so I decided to nip it decisively in the bud with a few tweaks to my .htaccess file. There's always a possiblity that my modifications might have done something to block legimate access to my site (like from an RSS aggregator), so if you see broken links where my images used to be, leave a comment.
Comments
Ah... you too... Nice people. I blocked few more people in the last days. Why people can't host in they own servers or in any of the zillion of sites that host images for free? I hate this. :-/
I can see the image of the last post at Bloglines, so it's okay.
Posted by: Bibi | January 27, 2006 12:14 PM
Most of the image linking I've witnessed is by kids on LiveJournal and other free sites which do not allow you to upload images.
Using .htaccess, I blocked the image linking. I also modified my robots.txt file to ban behaving robots, such as GoogleBot, from visiting my image directories. Over time, as my images drop out of Googles index, the number of people attempting to link directly to my images has decreased noticably.
Posted by: Scott McGerik | January 27, 2006 2:51 PM
Hah! Blocked hot-linked images are my biggest request every day.
I've always been tempted to set .htaccess to substitute a honkin' big 1000x1000 pixel black square just to blow the hell out of the layouts on their message boards and blogs. But then I'd just be burning my bandwidth for spite.
But spite is a good thing, right?
Posted by: M.Ace | January 27, 2006 2:52 PM
But spite is a good thing, right?
Absolutely, along with selfish childishness, it's an essential quality that all bloggers must possess!
Posted by: MrBaliHai | January 27, 2006 5:06 PM
For awhile, I did something similar to M.Ace's idea. I substituted an image that said "This image was stolen from scott.mcgerik.com" repeatedly in black letters against a bright green background on a 1000x1000 image. Since the twerps never removed the hotlink, I stopped doing that.
Maybe I should have substituted a pr0n image and then complained about the indecent pictures.
Posted by: Scott McGerik | January 28, 2006 7:25 PM
Hey Scott, shouldn't you be heading over to the Thunderbird bar about now? Wish I had known about it a littler earlier.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | January 28, 2006 7:44 PM
If you want, I'll add you to the distribution list when we announce our next gathering.
Posted by: Scott McGerik | January 29, 2006 9:51 AM
Please do, and I'm interested in hearing about the Thunderbird's bar. I've stayed at the hotel several times, and I recall there being plenty of Indian kitsch, but no Tikiosity.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | January 29, 2006 9:57 AM
Ahh, yes. I did that myself a few years ago. Very annoying.
Posted by: Matt | January 30, 2006 1:37 PM
I did that myself a few years ago
I know. I figured out how to do it by reading your post!
Posted by: MrBaliHai | January 30, 2006 6:50 PM