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 Administrative / General / 1817
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Subject: 
Re: Cracking down on unauthorized image links
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.admin.general
Date: 
Sun, 13 Jun 1999 18:13:51 GMT
Viewed: 
551 times
  
Sooo it is a CGI...
All I needed to know...

--
Z. Unger
dzz@mindspring.com
ICQ: 14375008
=============================================================
LEGO Fusion :  http://bricks.virtualave.net/
Zlatko's Universe :  http://www.Geocities.com/TimesSquare/Stadium/9968/
=============================================================
...fear leads to hate, hate leads to anger, anger leads to suffering...

Z. Unger <dzz@mindspring.com> wrote in message news:FD2xI4.6M2@lugnet.com...
I just want to know what you used on the server to stup the refers...

--
Z. Unger
dzz@mindspring.com
ICQ: 14375008
=============================================================
LEGO Fusion :  http://lego.virtualave.net/
Zlatko's Universe :  http://www.Geocities.com/TimesSquare/Stadium/9968/
=============================================================
...fear leads to hate, hate leads to anger, anger leads to suffering...
Todd Lehman <lehman@javanet.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.11bf538494729c9b9899da@lugnet.com...

I just happened across a couple unauthorized links from eBay auctions
directly to images of sets hosted on the lugnet.com server.  What people • are
doing is linking from various places (mostly eBay auctions) directly to • the
JPEG images.  This is a big "no-no":  it's against general web • netiquette
and it's also something I have always for years advised people against,
whenever they have asked, or been caught.

In addition to the fact that URLs of the other peoples' images are • always
subject to change at any time without notice, it's really unethical to • link
directly to other peoples' images without their permission, since they • are
stuck with the bill for the bandwidth, yet they receive nothing in • return.

Instead of embedding images hosted on other peoples' servers, people • should
link to the other peoples' web pages -- or make a local copy of the • image
they want (presumably with permission from the copyright owner) and host • it
on their own homepage (on geocities or the auction site or wherever). • Note:
I don't own the copyright on the LEGO images, so don't ask me for • permission
to copy it; use your own judgment as governed by TLG's "Fair Play" • policy.

In the past, I knew that this sort of funny-business was happening from • time
to time, but I never really paid it much concern because it wasn't • really
eating much bandwidth.  However, times have changed:  I just ran a • script
to
check where things stand today, and here are the results:

Over the past 2 weeks, 761 megabytes of JPEG image transfers occurred to
off-site pages embedding the images without permission.  This is still a
long way from representing a "break-the-bank" level of link-piracy, but
nevertheless it's beginning to get out-of-hand.

The robust, long-term solution is to serve the JPEG images selectively • to
on-site pages and reject them to off-site pages, using an Apache • webserver
module called "mod_rewrite" and looking at the HTTP referrer field • on-the-
fly; or invoking a CGI script whenever an image is requested, and • optionally
doing more advanced filtering.

The less-robust, short-term solution is simply to rename the image
directories, thus breaking all of the bad links.  This would certainly • stop
the problem, but doing that is like mowing over a weed rather than • digging
it up by the roots -- the problem will come right back to full intensity • in
a couple weeks.

Probably both will happen -- first the short-term solution and later the
long-term solution.  I'm not going to personally write everyone who's • doing
unauthorized linking (I don't think they deserve any warning, anyway); • this
message serves as the only "notice" to freeloaders...

--Todd

[followups set to lugnet.admin.general]





Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Cracking down on unauthorized image links
 
I just want to know what you used on the server to stup the refers... -- Z. Unger dzz@mindspring.com ICQ: 14375008 ===...=== LEGO Fusion : (URL) Universe : (URL) leads to hate, hate leads to anger, anger leads to suffering... Todd Lehman (...) (25 years ago, 9-Jun-99, to lugnet.admin.general)

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