Stealing bandwidth is a crime and will NOT be tolerated!
By: PhenomenalWomen.com
There are many forms of bandwidth stealing on the web today. However, the bandwidth theft focused on here is image/graphic stealing, and is the
bandwidth theft that occurs most. That is when you find an image you like and
you are:
- too cheap to have server space of your own to use
-and/or-
- too lazy to upload the image to your own server
-and/or-
- uneducated about the crime you are committing
-or all of the
above-
Crime? Yes, it is a crime. The person
whose site the image is on that you are linking to for the source of the image is
paying to display their image on your site.
First of all, the image belongs to them, not you. What right do you have to say; "Oh, wouldn't this look great on my site?" and just copy the
image URL and use it on your site. You have no right at all. It is
not your graphic. Even if it is a very common graphic, for example a
bullet or an arrow, and you have seen it on many sites. The operative word here is
"on." Get it? It is on a site. That site owner is
paying one way or another to have that graphic displayed
on the web. Perhaps they pay a monthly fee. Perhaps, they use a 'free' web service, however, they have
limits on the amount of bandwidth they are allowed to use. By linking to the graphic, YOU have
STOLEN from them one way or another.
Secondly, if it is an original graphic that the site owner designed them self, and you link to the source of the
graphic to be displayed on your site, you are not only stealing the bandwidth, you are now
plagiarizing their work too.
It seems a big culprit these days are the "community" type websites (MSN Groups
are a fine examples). A person can easily set up a little web site lickety-split - and it's even faster when you link to the source of the
graphics you have seen on the web & like rather than uploading them in YOUR
space. Not to mention writing to the owner of the graphic and asking their
permission first. People do this because it is a fast and cheap way to put
something up quickly. In doing this, you are stealing!
One other area that is festering boil for bandwidth stealing are the Bulletin Boards that offer the members an ability to have a
cutesy little icon next to their name. People remember that cute little picture of a dancing
potato they saw on a web site and link to the image source for their member icon. Now, the site owner who's dancing
potato graphic you are linking to is looking through their server logs and see 15,048 hits to this one little graphic.
"What the heck," they say in
disbelief! Or, they get a notice from their 'free' web site host telling them that they have exceeded their allowable bandwidth
for the month and their site will be shut off OR they have to pay extra money to keep it up.
Bottom line, if you want to use a graphic on your site, you must do these things:
write to the site owner of the graphic that you would like to use on your site. ASK,
repeat ASK them if you can use that graphic on your site. If they say yes, then thank them and be
certain to thank them in the credits of your site. If they say no,
swear a bit under your breath but under no circumstances do you link to the graphic thinking that "I'm not really using it on my site.. since it is not on my server. Leave it alone and go find something else
instead.
Does this text make you angry or are you grinning ear to ear? If you are
feeling angry, you are one of those snatch and grab people who take what they want and say the
heck with the rules.
If you are smiling ear to ear, you are a site owner who is glad to see the text you have just read. It is in plain
English and not sugar coated in any way. PhenomenalWomen.com understands this because so many images on this site are linked to and bandwidth
stolen daily.
A warning:, many site owners can track down and
pinpoint exactly where their images are being used on other sites. When that
happens, you will be in trouble. If you are new to the web, take the advice of
this page as your first lesson and don't forget it.
Image Reproduction and Permissions Policy
You can also read:
Direct Linking and Hot Linking is bandwidth theft!
Why you must NOT do this!
Sins of The Internet: Bandwidth Stealing
Stealing My Pictures
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