Comments on: Content Protection: Disable Hotlinking http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103 Tech Reviews, News, How-Tos, and FAQs Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:55:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Shantanu Goel http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-2163 Shantanu Goel Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:48:27 +0000 http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-2163 John, There is another problem with that .htaccess. You are blocking blank referrers as well. Browsers that are not sending out referrers (for privacy etc) will also fail in this case. I'd say that allowing blank referrers should not be much of an issue. <em>Shantanu Goel's last blog post..<a href='http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techShantanu/~3/242496276/one-month-completed.html'>One Month Completed….</a></em> John,
There is another problem with that .htaccess. You are blocking blank referrers as well. Browsers that are not sending out referrers (for privacy etc) will also fail in this case. I’d say that allowing blank referrers should not be much of an issue.

Shantanu Goel’s last blog post..One Month Completed….

]]> By: Jeffro2pt0 http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-2132 Jeffro2pt0 Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:05:54 +0000 http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-2132 Heya John. The end result is hilarious, but since it has already been mentioned up above, after I discovered that images were not appearing in FeedReaders and that I couldn't do other things that required me to see images hosted on my domain, I decided to turn hotlinking off as it was more hassle than what it was worth. I have yet to come across a splog that has actually lifted an image from my domain and posted it on their own domain. How do you combat automation? Apparently, doing things manually <em>Jeffro2pt0's last blog post..<a href='http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Jeffro2pt0/~3/241752149/the-negatives-of-dofollow'>The Negatives Of DoFollow</a></em> Heya John. The end result is hilarious, but since it has already been mentioned up above, after I discovered that images were not appearing in FeedReaders and that I couldn’t do other things that required me to see images hosted on my domain, I decided to turn hotlinking off as it was more hassle than what it was worth. I have yet to come across a splog that has actually lifted an image from my domain and posted it on their own domain.

How do you combat automation? Apparently, doing things manually

Jeffro2pt0’s last blog post..The Negatives Of DoFollow

]]> By: John Kolbert http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-2123 John Kolbert Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:31:17 +0000 http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-2123 <strong>@Anjrec & ACT</strong> I'm glad you guys will get some use from this! I've fond it quite useful myself. @Anjrec & ACT I’m glad you guys will get some use from this! I’ve fond it quite useful myself.

]]> By: ACT Practice Tests http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-2039 ACT Practice Tests Sat, 23 Feb 2008 19:23:41 +0000 http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-2039 This is great! I have heard of doing this but wasn't sure just how to accomplish it. This will definitely go in bag of tricks!! <em>ACT Practice Tests's last blog post..<a href='http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ActPracticeTests/~3/214577578/act-practice-tests-key-to-act-test.html'>ACT Practice Tests -- A key to ACT Test Success</a></em> This is great! I have heard of doing this but wasn’t sure just how to accomplish it. This will definitely go in bag of tricks!!

ACT Practice Tests’s last blog post..ACT Practice Tests — A key to ACT Test Success

]]> By: andrej http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-2038 andrej Sat, 23 Feb 2008 18:47:47 +0000 http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-2038 Good tip, thanks for sharing. I think I will have to use this, as there are some auto-blogs that are "stealing" the content from my blog, so I could at least block my images from being "stolen" and save some bandwidth. <em>andrej's last blog post..<a href='http://wpmix.com/citrus-net-wordpress-theme/'>Citrus Net</a></em> Good tip, thanks for sharing. I think I will have to use this, as there are some auto-blogs that are “stealing” the content from my blog, so I could at least block my images from being “stolen” and save some bandwidth.

andrej’s last blog post..Citrus Net

]]> By: John Kolbert http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-2015 John Kolbert Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:12:46 +0000 http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-2015 <p><strong>@tv brackets</strong> I'm glad you'll get some use from it. Being able to block access to your sites images is great tool. If you want to whitelist sites so they can post your image (like Google image search, etc), all you have to do is include code similar to the following into your .htaccess:</p> <p><code>RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !google\. [NC]</code></p> <p>This line would go by the code shown in the article, above. You can change "google" to any domain you want whitelisted. Enjoy!</p> @tv brackets I’m glad you’ll get some use from it. Being able to block access to your sites images is great tool. If you want to whitelist sites so they can post your image (like Google image search, etc), all you have to do is include code similar to the following into your .htaccess:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !google. [NC]

This line would go by the code shown in the article, above. You can change “google” to any domain you want whitelisted. Enjoy!

]]> By: tv brackets http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-2014 tv brackets Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:33:33 +0000 http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-2014 This is a great idea! I have copyrights on all my stuff, but I am aware of the fact it gets ripped off all the time. I was unaware that I could stop them from at least linking to my pics, and I will get this changed. This is a great idea! I have copyrights on all my stuff, but I am aware of the fact it gets ripped off all the time.
I was unaware that I could stop them from at least linking to my pics, and I will get this changed.

]]> By: John Kolbert http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-1996 John Kolbert Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:52:42 +0000 http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-1996 <p><strong>@David</strong> Thanks for stopping by and for the suggestion. I have since updated the .htaccess to whitelist most of the major web-based rss readers, so hopefully that helps. You're right, you can't possibly whitelist all of them. I guess you have to decide what's more important: stop hotlinking, or ensuring none of your readers have trouble reading the RSS feed.</p> <p><strong>@Jonathan</strong> That is an interesting suggestion. Black-listing only known offenders ensures that RSS subscribers won't have issues. It turns blocking hotlinking into a reactionary process rather then an actionary one, but it does ensure usability.</p> @David Thanks for stopping by and for the suggestion. I have since updated the .htaccess to whitelist most of the major web-based rss readers, so hopefully that helps. You’re right, you can’t possibly whitelist all of them. I guess you have to decide what’s more important: stop hotlinking, or ensuring none of your readers have trouble reading the RSS feed.

@Jonathan That is an interesting suggestion. Black-listing only known offenders ensures that RSS subscribers won’t have issues. It turns blocking hotlinking into a reactionary process rather then an actionary one, but it does ensure usability.

]]> By: Jonathan Bailey http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-1981 Jonathan Bailey Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:52:16 +0000 http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-1981 I agree that image hotlinking is a problem and that the solution you present doesn't work, but it also, usually, blocks images loaded up by some RSS readers such as Google Reader and NewGator. After all, in those cases, the URL listed for the page load is on their servers and your .htaccess file will block all image uses not on your own site. This has forced many to find other ways to deal with the problem, such as specifically blacklisting known bad sites. Hope this helps! <em>Jonathan Bailey's last blog post..<a href='http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/PlagiarismToday/~3/238906344/'>Video: Professor Lessig’s Final Free Culture Lecture</a></em> I agree that image hotlinking is a problem and that the solution you present doesn’t work, but it also, usually, blocks images loaded up by some RSS readers such as Google Reader and NewGator.

After all, in those cases, the URL listed for the page load is on their servers and your .htaccess file will block all image uses not on your own site.

This has forced many to find other ways to deal with the problem, such as specifically blacklisting known bad sites.

Hope this helps!

Jonathan Bailey’s last blog post..Video: Professor Lessig’s Final Free Culture Lecture

]]> By: David Airey http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-1964 David Airey Thu, 21 Feb 2008 08:45:11 +0000 http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-1964 Hi John, Thanks for the mention. I responded to your question about feed readers. You can 'white list' all the main ones, but it's not so easy to ensure blanket coverage. All the best. <em>David Airey's last blog post..<a href='http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CreativeDesign/~3/237707727/'>4 Phases of Internet Marketing FREE report</a></em> Hi John,

Thanks for the mention. I responded to your question about feed readers. You can ‘white list’ all the main ones, but it’s not so easy to ensure blanket coverage.

All the best.

David Airey’s last blog post..4 Phases of Internet Marketing FREE report

]]> By: John Kolbert http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-1953 John Kolbert Thu, 21 Feb 2008 04:21:16 +0000 http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-1953 <p><strong>@Randy</strong> Rats. I had tested it in my own desktop feed reader and it worked fine. I didn't think about the web-based feed readers. I've tried to exclude bloglines from the htaccess filter. Let me know if it works. Of course, this is just band-aid because everyone uses different readers. Maybe I'll have to rethink using this protection. Thanks for the heads up.</p> @Randy Rats. I had tested it in my own desktop feed reader and it worked fine. I didn’t think about the web-based feed readers. I’ve tried to exclude bloglines from the htaccess filter. Let me know if it works. Of course, this is just band-aid because everyone uses different readers. Maybe I’ll have to rethink using this protection. Thanks for the heads up.

]]> By: Randy http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-1952 Randy Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:45:53 +0000 http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941103#comment-1952 Unfortunately, this affects my web-based feed reader as well -- the referrer there is technically different. (I use Bloglines beta.) I went back and viewed some older posts with images, and they were all replaced with the new "I Heart Simply-Basic.com" image. Congrats on being so popular that you need something like this in place! ~randy <em>Randy's last blog post..<a href='http://www.randyhoyt.com/updates/pathways.to.bliss/'>Pathways to Bliss</a></em> Unfortunately, this affects my web-based feed reader as well — the referrer there is technically different. (I use Bloglines beta.) I went back and viewed some older posts with images, and they were all replaced with the new “I Heart Simply-Basic.com” image.

Congrats on being so popular that you need something like this in place!
~randy

Randy’s last blog post..Pathways to Bliss

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