I've seen quite a few answers where the images are directly hotlinked from other blogs/sites. Is it acceptable ? IIRC Jeff had a post on his blog about blocking leechers/hotlinkers. What is the accepted policy over at The Trilogy sites ?
asked Dec 13, 2009 at 8:37
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6Given that SOFU doesn't have a hosting facility, nomatter where the image comes from, it's going to be hotlinked...– Mark HendersonCommented Dec 13, 2009 at 9:17
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1@Farseeker: But image hosting services are designed for hotlinking - arguably people should use those.– RichieHindleCommented Dec 13, 2009 at 9:28
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1@RichieHindle: no question it should be hotlinked in a respectful manner, but the situation stands. images in answers don't work any other way.– quack quixoteCommented Dec 13, 2009 at 9:40
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See also Is there a place for “E.G. images we can hot-link in code examples”?– Andrew ThompsonCommented Dec 13, 2013 at 13:36
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2 Answers
Since hotlinking usually isn't considered a nice thing to do (some sites like to use rather nasty anti-hotlinking replacement images!) I think one way SO could go with this is the similar thing done by for example SomethingAwful.com forums: They generally allow only couple pre-selected image hosting sites to be used when images are being hotlinked, in their case it's WaffleImages which exists solely as a service for SA.com. Additionally similar services do exist for multiple MMO games too so this isn't an unique concept at all.
Coupled with mandatory OpenID registration to such site would even allow to track copyright infringments etc. (this tracking is usually required by various state/nation laws) and would thus keep SO legally safe from angry lawyers while allowing for safely managed way to share helpful images with others when needed. It would of course be up to the implementation to actually decide whether it allows the images to be used elsewhere than Trilogy sites and how to handle the cases where people upload random pictures to share with their friends and so on and so forth, but this is just an idea I'm throwing out here.
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some sites like to use rather nasty anti-hotlinking replacement images! Indeed, one of the reasons why I had asked this question. I generally use Imageshack or ImgX to host images, but at times I get lazy and do a copy-paste of image URL Commented Dec 14, 2009 at 20:48
I would think generally it is allowed. However it also depends largely on the sources of the images. There might be certain terms of use/conditions/policies that forbid hotlinking.
My advise is, if not sure, better check. Even if it is allowed, giving credits by mentioning the source will be a nice gesture.
