Hotlinking

(Ananova News) January 20, 2023.

Often spammers leave malicious links in comments or use someone’s else image without permission (hotlinking). Miscreants very conveniently steal images and use the image URL directly on the website, which is served from the original location. Most images have licensing restrictions attached to them like no commercial use under any circumstances. Without paying for the license, the hotlinking allows them to use the image. Digital assets need proper attribution to the original creator.

To disable comments and hotlinking, log in to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the “Settings” section.

From there, click on the “Discussion” tab and scroll down to the “Other Comment Settings” section.
Uncheck the box next to the “Allow people to post comments on new articles” option and click on the “Save Changes” button.

To disable hotlinking, you will need to add a few lines of code to your website’s .htaccess file.
WordPress.com uses CDN to speed up the delivery of your assets with hotlink protection.
Technical experts always suggest keeping software (theme, plugins, third-party add-ons, and WordPress Core) updated and up-to-date with the latest fixes. Always use strong and unique logins and passwords to secure accounts. Hence, it is always suggested to have managed WordPress hosting, as the provider monitors website security, takes regular backups, and keeps them up.

Companies like WordPress.com have the expertise to protect hosted websites from cyber attacks, breaches, hacking, identity and access management (IAM), malware and vulnerabilities, and phishing. They take care of updating WordPress core, themes, plugins, and PHP, disabling external URL requests, and implementing SSL. They keep regular backups, which ensure business continuity. A secured website has a good online reputation, so businesses prioritise security. Every eCommerce store and business website needs protection against cyberattacks, malware, and viruses. Businesses want to protect data as well as sensitive information and thus want to ensure website functionality and online reputation. Hence, it asks for crucial security measures. Google penalises or blacklists malicious or phishing websites.

hotlinking

What Is Hotlinking?

Hotlinking refers to practice when a web page of one web site owner links image or other multimedia files from another website. Instead of saving a copy of image on their own website, a website owner uses a link to the picture. Hotlinking can also be used for file types other than images, including videos and documents.

Is Hotlinking illegal or legal?

Hotlinking is generally without permission and also consumes Bandwidth of hotlinked website owner making Hotlinking file hosting illegal. It also comes under intellectual property theft.

It is violation of copyright. If you are displaying an image or file that does not belong to you, makes you open to litigation. The owner of the file can give your information for use in legal proceedings and also make use of DMCA law to have your site shut down.

Hotlinking can be legal if a person owns multiple websites and is using images, videos or documents from single point saved on server for his different websites.

Implication of Hotlinking and how you can prevent it:

So if you are hotlinking free your webpage will load slower moreover the owner of the image has full control to delete or disable illegal hotlinking and worse do a switcheroo i.e. switching filename to another image which can cause embarrassment.

General methods of preventing hotlinking are by renaming image files frequently, by using an .htaccess file and using the “Hotlink Protection” offered in control panels such as Cpanel. Hotlinking can also be used for documents and videos file types other than images.

For whom it is Beneficial?

One of the most widespread occurrences of Hotlinking is when people post at forum and they hotlink pictures from some other website to use as signature images or avatars on the message boards (forums), eBay auction listing. Also as discussed above if a person owns multiple websites and is using images, videos or documents from single point saved on server.

Who are the webhosts offering hotlinking in adult-friendly hosting?

Webhosts that offer hotlinking adult file hosting are mentioned below: