Direct Linking

Celexa · Post by **Celexa** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 9:50 pm

I have a friend that has a site with lots of potential...if she'd stop direct linking. (I'm leaving her URL out) For about a month, I've stressed to her that direct linking is bad, but she keeps coming up with a million (more or less) excuses why it's OK to direct link (Her bandwidth is low, the webmaster said it's okay to take, she doesn't know where to download it) To which I respond why it's bad. (Get some servers like I do, the webmaster meant take but not direct link, search on google and by the way here's the link to download it) and I'm at the end of my rope. I NEED to get my message across to her, and she seems almost ready to change if she would STOP direct linking the mp3 on her site, which is our big problem right now. She keeps avoiding it and avoiding it, and she needs to stop stealing bandwidth! She's a theif, internet style! I'm so frusturated I'm about ready to write a rant while cursing like a sailor. I would like to tell her all this, but I don't know how. I can't start screaming my point on why something is bad after I speak logic like I can with my other friends when I'm frusturated, because she's overly sensitive. If I yelled out all I just posted, I'm sure she'd start crying, which is the last thing I want. Can someone *please* tell me a way I can tell her this has to stop without loosing my temper?

Post by **Tiff** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 10:28 pm

Report her. I'm serious. Either report her to her site provider (like, if she has a geocities, tripod, etc siet) or, contact the sites from which she's direct-linking, tell them that you want to ANONYMOUSLY report her for direct-linking, and I garuntee they'll go after her, telling her to take their stuff off, or they'll report her to her site provider. You need to stop worrying about "making her cry", because what she's doing is very wrong, and it pisses off people like me, who work hard on their sites only to have some person like your friend steal my bandwith.

Celexa · Post by **Celexa** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 10:33 pm

My only problem is that one site said that it was okay because they were direct linking from the EXACT SAME server. I'll give out her URL I suppose, because apparantly it's more serious than I made it out to be.

http://www.geocities.com/torono4/

The Legolas page. If you look at the source, the mp3 is direct linked. I've told her time and time again, but I'm not quite sure where to report, and the site she's dling from seems like one of the more offical run-by-a-company site, and I don't know how to come across that.

Post by **Tiff** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 10:34 pm

unless the site where she found that mp3 said it's okay to direct link, THEN IT'S NOT OKAY.

Celexa · Post by **Celexa** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 10:39 pm

Tiff wrote:unless the site where she found that mp3 said it's okay to direct link, THEN IT'S NOT OKAY.

The site she got it from is direct linking another another site, and she said it was ok. I'll post the email she sent me.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello. Yeah, I kinda sorta get what you're saying about my music on my
Legolas Shrine. Anyway, here is was the person said, when I emailed
them about the music:

----- Original Message -----
From: "LegolasLover #20064" <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2004 19:06:10 -0800
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: Hi

Hi Torono!
Oh don't worry, you are not direct linking from my site. ^_^ I forgot
where
I got those codes but it was from a site that allowed you to "take"
them and
place them on your site. So no worries, you are not doing anything
wrong.
Thanks so much for asking. I really appreciate it. Hope to talk to you
soon.
Namaarie!~LegolasLover#20064

**********************************************
And yes Arielle, you can send me advice, nasty comments, etc. but this
is what they mailed me, so I probably won't take the music off my site
(seeing how I have no way of downloading it) Of course, I am always
open to your suggestions, and if you feel that I have to, I guess I'll
take it off. Email me soon.
~Hope

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wrote back saying take doesn't mean direct link, but I'm worried she *still* doesn't get it. What I need is a way to explain it to her before I go to reporting her site. I also gave her a page where she could download it!

Post by **Tiff** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 11:01 pm

*shrug* it's your judgement call.

Neo Dead Moon · Post by **Neo Dead Moon** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 9:22 pm

I side with Tiff-san: you should report her. Hosting your own web sites takes a lot of space and sometimes money, and no one should be direct linking from YOU just because that person can't find enough space to place their stuff in, even if they are told it's "okay" to do so.

Celexa · Post by **Celexa** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 9:54 pm

Just for everyone's clarification: Although I reported her, the site has cleared up it's direct linking problems. I'm gong to keep a close eye on it, but it seems good for now.

Tempest · Post by **Tempest** » Sun Jan 25, 2004 5:43 am

I know I'm late on this, but I agree with the majority. I've been a "squealer" since long before I bought my first domain. Probably as far back as tripod.
I've been doing it for so long that I've trained myself to look at the download source for MP3, Video files, and large image galleries. Friends or Strangers, if they ignore my requests to stop direct linking, I'll use my email of justice and report them. I'm not ashamed of my past actions and I will always continue to do it. I've seen one to many of my favorite sites closed because they can't keep up bandwidth costs or their hosts have kicked them off. It's the number one cause toward my hatred for ExPages. With ExPages you only get 1 html document per account and you have to pay around $30 just to upload images. So people directly link files from other or paying servers. It truely pisses me off.
The rewards are few and far between, but I've gotten a good share of "Thank You" emails from domain owners saying they appreicate my good nature. :D That makes it all worth while.

For furture reference, email the owner of the source files. Some people lie, not that I'm saying your friend does, just so no one questions their actions.

Celexa · Post by **Celexa** » Sun Jan 25, 2004 5:11 pm

See, I'm keeping a close eye on it. So far so good. So I guess this thread can be pretty much inactive unless I cath her, eh?

Sakuya · Post by **Sakuya** » Sun Jan 25, 2004 11:08 pm

How do you know people are direct linking to one's files? I am hosted by a friend so I don't have access to the main domain.

[offtopic]
Tempest, your avatar really suits your post above!

Post by **Tiff** » Sun Jan 25, 2004 11:38 pm

Sakuya wrote:How do you know people are direct linking to one's files? I am hosted by a friend so I don't have access to the main domain.

[offtopic]
Tempest, your avatar really suits your post above!

Look at their image code in their html, and if the location of the image posted is not from their webhost, then they are direct linking.

Jumbled Thoughts · Post by **MarioKnight** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 12:01 am

Yeah, and sometimes it's not only image files, though those are the most common. I should direct everyone to Toonami Digital Arsenal to read one of the more recent news posts, pretty funny. ^_^

Sakuya · Post by **Sakuya** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 12:46 am

No, what I meant was how would you know if someone is direct linking from you since there are millions of websites out there....

Post by **Tiff** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 1:12 am

Sakuya wrote:No, what I meant was how would you know if someone is direct linking from you since there are millions of websites out there....

*Shrug* unless someone reports it or you go looking, you don't.

Jumbled Thoughts · Post by **MarioKnight** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 1:50 am

If you run your own server or use a pay host, there are things you can set up to prevent direct linking (ie. an image that says "stolen from *insert site*" that appears instead of the directly linked image) and logs to see what sites are doing so. It's not that hard to do and makes it easy to find these people in doing so.

Post by **Tiff** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 1:58 am

MarioKnight wrote:If you run your own server or use a pay host, there are things you can set up to prevent direct linking (ie. an image that says "stolen from *insert site*" that appears instead of the directly linked image) and logs to see what sites are doing so. It's not that hard to do and makes it easy to find these people in doing so.

*gaspo* I didn't know that. Shows how much I know...

Celexa · Post by **Celexa** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 4:44 pm

For the image you can get if they direct link, would it still take up your bandwidth space, or would it take up someone else's?

Post by **Tiff** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 4:54 pm

Celexa wrote:For the image you can get if they direct link, would it still take up your bandwidth space, or would it take up someone else's?

*Blink* I'm not sure what you're asking.

Tempest · Post by **Tempest** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 5:08 pm

Yes, it will still take your bandwidth, but it's usless to continue to direct-link it. Who would want a image that says "THIEF" instead of the image they want. It's a step closer to making people stop.

I use .htaccess files. it blocks all files accessed outside of my server. It doesn't have a cute image or anything attached, it just displayed the file as a broken link or redirects the file to my 403 forbidden page.