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On SU, there is a question from a new user, who links to an image that he is hosting on his site. The image seems to be quite relevant to the question.

When I see these sorts of situations, should I upload these images to imgur so that they don't get lost? Or would that be rude without the permission of the question asker? I guess I could leave a comment asking the OP if he would like me to upload it, perhaps also explaining that when you get 10 rep you can upload your own images.

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  • See also: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/75962/…
    – Kev Mod
    Commented Jul 3, 2011 at 14:13
  • @Kev, looks like my question is a dupe of the other, more or less. Perhaps this one should be closed/deleted/otherwise banished to the bit bucket?
    – dsolimano
    Commented Jul 4, 2011 at 16:55

2 Answers 2

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Possibly -- we're working on a broader solution that may automatically mirror all images across the network.

So I would say

  1. Do it if you feel the image is particularly good and central to the question (although, this implies the text is bad, since images should be a "nice to have" in almost all cases)

  2. Assume that we will be automatically backing up all images network wide in the future, and that might include rewriting the post to point to i.stack.imgur.com at some point.

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  • Maybe this is a bit overbearing, but why not prevent users from linking to offsite images to prevent link rot? Or silently import to i.stack.imgur.com?
    – Kev Mod
    Commented Jul 3, 2011 at 14:16
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Hosting the images on i.sstatic.net would be preferable, as the host is more reliable. Images are "decorations," but they can surely help to better understand the question being asked (a picture is worth a thousand words, they say).

I don't see anything wrong with editing the post to show the same picture hosted on i.sstatic.net; in the same way, I don't see anything wrong with editing a post to replace the link to a page showing a static image hosted in a web site that shows the image and some ads all around it, with an image hosted on i.sstatic.net.

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  • This has been discussed on [meta.MO] in 2024; one of the answers rightfully warns about copyright issues: you cannot republish images you do not have copyright to. So I don't agree with "I don't see anything wrong"; this might be a copyright minefield.
    – Federico Poloni
    Commented Oct 31 at 8:13
  • "[T]here is a question from a new user, who links to an image that he is hosting on his site." If that user does not have any copyright rights, he cannot even provide a link to the image. and could not even host the image on his site.
    – avpaderno
    Commented Oct 31 at 8:37
  • The user may hold the rights to that image, but not be willing to release it under a CC license.
    – Federico Poloni
    Commented Oct 31 at 9:03
  • That is different from copyright matters.
    – avpaderno
    Commented Oct 31 at 9:04
  • We clearly have a different definition of "copyright matters". If user A in their post links to an image they are hosting (possibly they hold copyright to the image, possibly they have permission, or possibly they are breaking copyright laws, we don't know which one applies), then user B does not have the right to re-upload it onto another website and re-release it with a CC license.
    – Federico Poloni
    Commented Oct 31 at 9:07
  • There are also fair use exceptions. Therefore, it is not correct to say does not have any right.
    – avpaderno
    Commented Oct 31 at 9:12

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