Ranch Ramblins

For a lesson in what happens when you mis-handle Internet content or bandwidth theft from your website refer to my previous post, which has generated a multitude of vituperative comments (and rightly so, I might add).  Here is the post I should have written instead:

How the Practice of Hot Linking to Web Content Has Affected This Webmaster

Like many other people who have taken to the blogosphere, I have experienced the effects of having someone hot-link to a photograph that I posted on this blog to share with the few, but wonderful readers who check in here from time to time.  This has had a  negative impact on my ability to freely use the space and bandwidth that I have purchased from my web hosting company, and I would like to take this opportunity to explain the ill-effects that I have been experiencing.

First of all, what is hot-linking anyhow?  It is the practice of using a URL to link to content that is stored on another person’s web server, at the other person’s expense.  Rather then storing the (in this case) photograph file on their own server, the hot-linker simple directs a URL to the file that resides on the server of another.  The result is a hijacking, or theft of the bandwidth that the content originator is paying for.

There are several issues at play here.  One, as mentioned above, is the financial cost that is unfairly shifted to the originator of the content.  Second is the issue of copyright, or ownership of the material itself.  These are oft debated subjects that can readily be referenced by simply performing a Google search on “content theft.”  I intend to focus instead on a different consequence entirely, and the one that has directly affected me.

The person who created this hot link did so in order to use a photograph of mine as her personal ID icon within a group of web-based community forums.  Apparently this person is an active and regular participant in several of the forums within this community. 

Creating a hot link to use as your personal ID photo in this way is perhaps one of the most damaging ways to utilize the practice of hot linking.  Here is the reason why.  For the sake of argument, let us say that a person hotlinks to a photograph residing on my server to use in one of their blog posts, and for nothing more.  When a member of the public reads that blog post, it calls up the photograph from my server.  Let’s assume that 1000 people read that post.  My server will be accessed one thousand times, but after a day or two the activity will diminish to little or none.  A temporary and inconsequential spike in my server activity would ensue, one that I would probably never even notice, no less object to.

Now contrast the scenario above to someone who hotlinks to the same photograph, but uses it (as in this incident) as a personal ID photo.  Whenever that person posts a comment in their forums, the link is placed on the forum page to the photo on my server.  Again, assuming 1000 people read the forum page, my server will be accessed 1000 times.  If the person who has hot linked to my photo engages in some back and forth banter with others in the forum, say five exchanges, then my server would be accessed 5000 times.  The problem becomes multiplied however, because this is not a one-time use of the photograph that is likely to spike and then disappear shortly.  The requests for my photograph are renewed over and over again, each time this user creates a new comment on their forum.  It becomes a never ending cycle, and a constantly growing intrusion on my server, all from the simple, seemingly innocuous act of one person involved in a busy forum.

So you may ask, “how does this affect you, Hal?  What are the ill affects you are experiencing?”

Like many others who have purchased space on a server with a web hosting company, I am using the space for this blog.  But that is not all that I use my server space for.  I am attempting to utilize the space for a MySQL database application, one that I am having problems with at the moment.  In attempting to track down a solution to my ill-behaving application, the technical support rep at my web host recommends that I closely examine my web server activity log to try and determine if there is a correlation in time between certain specific web activity and the problem I am experiencing.  When I began examining the server activity log, I immediately discovered that I would have to wade through and analyze thousands of entries each day to achieve what my web host had suggested.

This blog that you are reading is a very obscure and little read blog, so you can imagine my surprise to find that it was generating so much activity in the server log.  It soon became apparent that the vast majority of the activity on my server was occurring in order to serve up the ID photograph that someone had hot linked to.  It has made the prospect of debugging my database application daunting, if not impractical to achieve.  And that is the issue I am faced with today.

I can easily live with the theft of bandwidth, although I believe it is wrong to do so.  I can easily live with someone using the photograph I created for their own purposes, even though I feel that is also wrong.  But when I am stymied in my attempts to debug an application on my server because someone has hot linked to a photograph, then some remedy is appropriate and called for.

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Above is the post I should have written.   And rather than the incendiary comments that I placed in the forums involved, I should simply have posted something akin to the following:

Dear BrilliantHen,  As you can see, I have removed the photograph that you have been using as your ID icon from my server.  I would appreciate it if you would remove the link to the photo from your profile.  If you are interesting in knowing why I am making this request, please feel free to read the post I have placed on my personal blog at the following link:  {The link to this post would go here}

I apologize to all for the way in which I handled this.  It was not up to the standards I like to set for myself, and the mudslinging that ensued as a result of my callous action was probably well deserved.

Back in February of this year I wrote a post pertaining to chickens, which included a photograph that I had taken of (at that time) our sole surviving hen.  Apparently, somebody liked that picture.

As I was examining the status reports of this website recently, I noticed that over half of the activity pertaining to this site on the server I use was coming from a single source, and one that I was not familiar with.  Investigating further, I discovered that a member of the EZboard on-line community had adopted the picture as her ID photograph in the user forums, going under the user name of TheBrilliantHen.  Whenever she posts a comment to any of the user forums, the photograph of the hen that I had taken would appear beside her user name.  By examining the “properties” of the jpeg photo file she was using, I discovered that she had simple provided her EZboard setup profile with a link to my photograph, on the server that I pay a monthly usage fee for hosting this blog.

I am not overly concerned about someone downloading a picture that I have posted for their own use.  In a way, it is flattering that someone would think highly enough of the picture to use it as their own.  It would be nice if they would give proper credit to me, but it is not that big of a deal to me if they don’t.  But at least if you are going to steal a photograph from someone, just take it with you and be gone.  Download it to your computer and use it as you will.  But don’t deliberately create a link to a photo residing on my web server and expect me to be happy about it.

By linking to a photograph in the way that TheBrilliantHen has linked to my photograph, I (and my web host) are forced to bear expenses on her behalf.  Each and every time somebody views these EZboard forum pages that TheBrilliantHen posts to, my web host has to serve up the photograph that I have paid to store on my web host’s computer, and the bandwidth that is used to do so is charged against my account.  So in effect, TheBrilliantHen is freeloading off of my website, at my expense.

Now I have to do some homework to see what (if anything) I can do to block this EZboard site from accessing my photographs.  In the meanwhile, I have removed the hijacked photograph from the server.  Whenever TheBrilliantHen (or anyone else) views any of the forums, instead of seeing my hen photograph as her personal icon, they will see a blank box (with red X) instead.  She will also read my replies to any of her posts:

Hey BrilliantHen, if you’re so brilliant, why don’t you take your own photograph instead of linking to my photograph on my web site, you dx?! picture and bandwidth thief?

You may say it is a minor, petty theft, but sometimes, it’s just the principle of the thing that matters the most.

UPDATE:  The excellent blog Lorelle on Wordpress has an extensive and detailed article entitled What To Do When Someone Steals Your Content that is a must read for anyone experiencing this problem.