is there a sure way to stop hotlinking?
 

I found websites that hotlink to videos on my site. The problem wouldn't be that great if they at least were doing it to show the video but in this case they are using it as their background music.
Is flash the only option I have to prevent the bandwith thieves from hotlinking or is there another option.
Thanks.

Your ISP can set up a non-linking from outside sources rule for the server. It is pretty easy to do so I would hope they allow you to do this... This means that none of your image or video files can be linked by outside URLs... in many cases you can set up specific IP addresses that you allow, but again, it depends on your ISP.

Right. This guy tried to hotlink one of my photographs of the first Wendy's restaurant today, but as you can see, he gets a very small placeholder GIF that directs people to my site instead. This sort of thing is easy to set up so long as you can get into your Apache config file.

Thats awesome. Is that something you have to personally know how to setup or will my host more than likely do that apache configuration for me?

Robert,

It looks like the guy's hotlinking is now working. Your Wendy's photo is showing up, not your small placeholder GIF.

Christopher, if you went to my site to see the Wendy's picture, and then back to his site, the photo would show up, because it would be in your cache.

For this reason, he'll probably never know that everbody else sees the placeholder GIF, because he'll always see the page as he intended.

Brandon, I don't know whether your host service will be helpful enough to set this up for you, but if you're not hosting on your own server, what do you care if others hotlink? It doesn't stop them from stealing the files, only the bandwidth. Or maybe your hosting deal limits your bandwidth and then shuts down access to your site after X number of megabytes have been viewed?

Thanks a lot guys. I will contact my ISP and see what they offer.
For my purpose, because I code in ASP, I am hosting on the Windows servers, maybe I will need to switch if this doesn't work.
Thanks again

Just a quick update, I opened up a service ticket with my ISP and within seconds had the problem solved by ISP putting a block on the IP range I provided them. BTW, I have to give these guys a plug. The company's name is HOSTEK.NET , I have been with them for almost seven years now. Never had a downtime, they are up to speed on everything and offers a full plate of great services. I also never waited more than 10 minutes for my issues to be addressed.
Again, thanks for your suggestions.

Probably the easiest way to prevent this is to just periodically change the filename or the directory for how it appears on your site. More than likely the pirate will get tired of seeing a blank space on their site and/or get tired of going to yours to get the newest url that you have changed it to and eventually just give up. Another way would be to change the filename/directory as it appears on your site and substitute another image with the orginal filename/directory that says unauthorized image to show everyone visiting their site that they are pirating.

Robert,

Well that's odd, because I didn't go to your site first, yet the photo still showed up.

*EDIT* Just tested again. I cleared my browsers' caches before hand, just to make sure. This time your placeholder worked. Don't know why. Like I said, I hadn't viewed that image on your site beforehand, though I may have visited your homepage about the time I went to his. Odd.

Why don't you send the owner of the site a nasty cease and desist letter. After all, if they are stealing your music, from your site, to use on their site, wouldn't that be an infringement of your copyright?

<<<-- Originally posted by Christopher Lefchik : Well that's odd, because I didn't go to your site first, yet the photo still showed up. -->>>

I have never been to your site either, but I saw the Wendy's image when I clicked on that link...

Which Wendy's image, Boyd? There are several on the page. If the picture of the first restaurant in Columbus appears even after you've cleared your cache, then it's a bit of a mystery.

Rhett, I did send them an e-mail, I also e-mailed their host provider and nothing. BTW, the IP blocking didn't do jack to resolve the issue so I guess I will have to keep changing the name or convert everything to flash. What bothers me the most that this is most likely some little girl, obviously a fan, and completely disregards a reasonable request to support her favorite artist by actually buying a CD as opposed to stealing it. I keep having these visions of Joe Pesci in the Goodfellows shooting the busboy in the leg...not sure why.

Re: is there a sure way to stop hotlinking?
 

<<<-- Originally posted by Rafal Krolik :
Is flash the only option I have to prevent the bandwith thieves from hotlinking or is there another option.
Thanks. -->>>

you can embed the file into your web page...

usually done like this, java script to open up a new page off a link, page is sized to video so only video shows, video qt or windows media is embedded into the page...

so there is no direct link to the video, they can't link to the web page because your using a java script link not a html an html link...

you can learn how to do all this stuff by using google for embeding video on a html page and search google for java script hot links and open page commands

good luck


by the way the wendys picture showed on my computer as well...