I have found a few people Hotlinking in the past, and they have been dealt with. Its not easy to do this and be nice, but i have come to realize that alot of people are not even aware of what they are doing.
Let me explain:
I have a limited amount of bandwith i pay for every month. This is kind of a measure of how much people can download off of my site (IE, everytime you save a pic or music or anything here), that counts as bandwith.
I do have ALOT per month, however, i can still measure what is being taken, and know when its not just being taken from my site.
HOTLINKING is when you take the location of a picture of mine here, and post it on your page. Then everyone who goes to your page and saves that pic is stealing from the bandwith i pay for, rather than getting it from my main website. Which means one of 2 things: 1-i run out of bandwith, and then noone has access to my stuff untill a new month begins OR 2-i pay for more bandwith to cover it...which IS NOT going to happen unless people start throwing money at me.
I DO NOT mind sharing my art...thats what its here for! But PLEASE do one of 2 things: Save my art, and upload it onto your own space for pictures to share with your friends, OR just direct people to my MAIN PAGE, not just to the piece of art.
I CAN stop people from saving my art all together to stop this, but that sucks alot. I WANT to share. So just be nice and leave my poor unloved bandwith alone XD
THE MEAN STUFF
I DO deal with hotlinkers when i have to. i don't like to do this. If someone likes my art i take it as a compliment very much, just not when they are abusing me to share it.
HOW I DEAL: I try to be nice. I will contact you and say "can you please not hotlink to me? I realize you may not know it, but it costs me..." and maybe ask them to do one of the things mentioned above.
If it stays or happens again...i get mean. I send my server, who act immediately upon phone contact, and sick them on your server. Your server, as with 98% of the servers on the planet, has policies against Hotlinking. Which means they will ask you to take them down themselves, and if you still leave them up...your account gets kicked off. Sucks ass, ne? So lets play nice and not get that far.
FIND A HOTLINKER? If you find someone sucking off my bandwith without me knowing...let me know, and i'll do a little fanart for ya, cg style. Not the mona lisa, but i'll work to make you happy!
Of course, my art and pictures are copyrighted. I don't think its nessescary, but its there, so be fair.
As always, feel free to email me, AIM me (TheAmazonMandy), or sign the guestbook to let me know what you think! And thank you for making the site as popular as it has been!
*glomps and love
Mandy
Damn that was long.
