bad nature of hotlink protection

[rooty]

Quite a few of us would agree that hot linking is one of our many things to think about when launching a new site.

the normal anti hot linking code allow your site(s) and empty referrers... and it works brilliantly

BUT (the big butt)

what about
images.google.com
translate.google.com
google cache (http://209.85.??.??/search?q=cache:)
AOL Cache & compression servers
more...

I've collected a few mod_rewrite lines of code to help with google and AOL (cant confirm it works for AOL... perhaps someone can?).

Does any of you have a comprehensive list of these lovely sites we do want to allow to hotlink to your site(s)?

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+\.)?aol\.com/.*$      [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+\.)?aol\.com$      [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+\.)?google(\.co[m]?)?(\.[a-z]{2})/.*$      [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+\.)?google(\.co[m]?)?(\.[a-z]{2})$      [NC]
RewriteCond %(HTTP_REFERER) !\/search\?q=cache

[asianslave]

Google image search fetches and caches your images rather than hotlinking them from your server. However your images must be fetchable by googlebot in the first place if you want them in google image search.

[burntfilm]

Here are a few you want on your list

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http(s)?://(.*\.)?roberc\.lv.*$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http(s)?://(.*\.)?fusker\.lv.*$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http(s)?://(.*\.)?home\.nl.*$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http(s)?://(.*\.)?nciv\.nl.*$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http(s)?://(.*\.)?opendirviewer\.nl.*$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http(s)?://(.*\.)?ixtractor\.com.*$ [NC,OR]

I'm sure there are a ton more. Check your web stats for "stolen objects" or whatever such category. There are a few ways to write this code I assume, I got mine off a tutorial...

[[BV]]

what's so bad about hotlinking?

it's more eyeballs on your stuff right?

i can see maybe for affiliates if they are hosting sponsor watermarked content, they would be losing

but for me, it's free advertising :-)

[burntfilm]

Originally Posted by [BV]

what's so bad about hotlinking?

it's more eyeballs on your stuff right?

If a site is indexing and hotlinking all the photos in your affiliate program and placing them on html pages with ads for dating sites and other stuff but no links to YOUR sites, as the sites I mentioned above do, then I'm against it.
The fact that on the sites I mention above, the surfer has to have searched for the sites they want images from, means there's no "eyeball" or impression based value there for me at all.

So yeah, it just ends up that programs that allow these particular sites to do that are playing the role of suckers, creating the content and paying for the bandwith that these cats use to sell other products. If they're cool with that, good for them, it just isn't a role I'm well suited for.

That's just the sites I have blocked, there are other reasons not to allow hotlinking, and there are instances where hotlinking should be allowed or is necessary!

concurrent post points some of those out:
Hotlinking question I had