I don’t like that there is a lot of bloggers that don’t seem to be aware of - or choose to ignore - the copyrights rules on the internet. I guess they don’t think that they will be discovered.
I’m also quite annoyed by the fact that some people hotlink to our pictures on this blog (I can see that in our statistic software on the server) - stealing our bandwidth that we’re paying for. So I’ve begin to put up this picture for them instead:
I just change the real pictures name to something else and this one to the name they hotlink to. Quite embarrassing for them, but also informative.
I could have just changed the name of it, but I think that this way is more effective. After all, there are many people out there that is not even aware of what they’re doing. Now they get to know.
There are other ways to do it too, like the hotlink option in the cPanel at the webhost or directly in the .htaccess file, but I’ve had some problems to implement them and this works for now.
Recently I stumbled over some very good summarizing information about the copyrights at Godbit, that all bloggers should be aware of.
Rules of Thumb on the Internet:
(These are rough guidelines, but they’re good ones)
- If it’s on the internet, it’s copyrighted.
- If you didn’t originate it, you don’t own the copyright.
- When in doubt, ask for permission.
- Or be certain as to fair use (and cite the original author).
- Or look for works available under a creative commons license.
- Don’t infringe copyrights.
Read what more Godbit writes about Copyrights
Webmasterstop about hotlinking and cPanel
The Site Wizard about hotlinking and htacess
Our earlier post about Copyscape
NOTE: You’re welcome to download 
this picture of mine if you want to use it yourself when being hotlinked.
Argentina
Austria
Brazil
Czech Republic
Denmark
England
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Monaco
The Netherlands
Norway
Paraguay
Portugal
Scotland
Slovakia
Spain
Sweden
United States
Oh, goodness…I know you hate that! Fortunately, my blog isn’t all that interesting so I don’t have that problem. I really hope they will stop the hotlinking! *s*
Lifecruiser: Your blog is interesting, but maybe you’re not using as much pictures as we do… Pheeew. I’ve already stopped many of them, but they’ll keep coming unfortunately. On top of that I’ve also got my computer infected by something (I clicked accidently on a link in a spam message) and I’m working on that problem too. Arrrgh, all this work just because there are nasty people out there!
Yay! So glad you’re writing about this issue. I try to have links to my Creative Commons license, but I know that doesn’t stop anything. I have yet to find any abuse of my pictures or writing out there without credit, but I do wonder if someday I will, and how I’ll react. I think you’re taking it pretty well.
Lifecruiser: It’s more common than you may think. Happens all the time. Sadly enough. We have to be prepared of that as soon as we go public on the internet, but that don’t make it any easier to get used to…
Hotlinking is a pretty major occurrence. I would say there are more people that just don’t realize they’re doing wrong, than those doing it on purpose (though there are a LOT of those too)
Lifecruiser: Yes, and especially from myspace. That’s why I thought that this message was the right way to go, at least they get info IF in case they’re unaware of what they’re doing
This is a great reminder, and something I very much appreciate. Someone once stole an entire blog post of mine and passed it off as theirs!
As far as graphics and pictures go, mine come from a set of clip art software I received for Mother’s Day in 2004. It’s a great tool to have on hand when I want to illustrate something. Or I’ll just take a picture with my camera.
Lifecruiser: A whole post stolen, yikes. That’s no fun at all. Yes, the camera is a good friend here too, but I sure could use that kind of clip art software too!