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for purposes of the
Copyright Act. In other words, Google does not have any "material objects...in which a work is fixed...and from which the work can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated" and thus cannot communicate a copy. Instead of communicating a copy of the image, Google provides HTML instructions that direct a user's browser to a website publisher's computer that stores the full-size photographic image. Providing these HTML instructions is not equivalent to showing a copy. First, the HTML instructions are lines of text, not a photographic image. Second, HTML instructions do not themselves cause infringing images to appear on the user's computer screen. The HTML merely gives the address of the image to the user's browser. The browser then interacts with the computer that stores the infringing image. It is this interaction that causes an infringing image to appear on the user's computer screen. Google may facilitate the user's access to infringing images. However, such assistance raised only contributory liability issues and does not constitute direct infringement of the copyright owner's display rights. ...While in-line linking and framing may cause some computer users to believe they are viewing a single Google webpage, the Copyright Act...does not protect a copyright holder against acts....
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with some custom complex server side scripting to allow hotlinking for a short time, or in more complex setups, to allow the hotlinking but return an alternative image with reduced quality and size and thus reduce the bandwidth load when requested from a remote server. All hotlink prevention measures
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Google does not...display a copy of full-size infringing photographic images for purposes of the
Copyright Act when Google frames in-line linked images that appear on a user's computer screen. Because Google's computers do not store the photographic images, Google does not have a copy of the images
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An article on one site may choose to refer to copyrighted images or content on another site via inline linking, which may avoid rights and ownership issues that copying the original files could raise. However, this practice is generally discouraged due to resulting bandwidth loading of the source,
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The most significant legal fact about inline linking, relative to copyright law considerations, is that the inline linker does not place a copy of the image file on its own
Internet server. Rather, the inline linker places a pointer on its Internet server that points to the server on which the
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to detect hotlinking and return a condemnatory message, commonly in the same format, in place of the expected image or media clip. Most servers can be configured to partially protect hosted media from inline linking, usually by not serving the media or by serving a different file.
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It is copyright infringement to make copies of a work for which the person making copies has no license, but there is no infringement when the re-user provides a simple text link within an HTML document that points to the location of the original image or file (simply called a
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script on the ad server, including a string uniquely identifying the site producing the traffic, and possibly other information about the person viewing the ad, previously collected and associated with a cookie. The CGI script determines which image to send in response to the
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proprietor of the image has placed the image file. This pointer causes a user's browser to jump to the proprietor's server and fetch the image file to the user's computer. US courts have considered this a decisive fact in copyright analysis. Thus, in
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Inline linking to an image stored on another site increases the bandwidth use of that site even though the site is not being viewed as intended. The complaint may be the loss of ad revenue or changing the perceived meaning through an unapproved
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Web architects may deliberately segregate the images of a site on one server or a group of servers. Hosting images on separate servers allows the site to divide the bandwidth requirements between servers. As an example, the high-volume site
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in the code that interprets the objects. When an object is stored on an external server, the referring site has no control over if and when an originally beneficial object's content is replaced by malicious
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When a website is visited, the browser first downloads the textual content in the form of an HTML document. The downloaded HTML document may call for other HTML files, images, scripts and/or
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The blurring of boundaries between sites can lead to other problems when the site violates users' expectations. Other times, inline linking can be done for malicious purposes.
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which allow images to display on the page. The HTML code generally does not specify a server, meaning that the web browser should use the same server as the parent code (
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and the source provider is often offended because the viewer is not seeing the whole original page, which provides the intended context of the image.
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show how many times a page has been loaded. Several companies provide hit counters that are maintained off site and displayed with an inline link.
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Most web browsers will blindly follow the URL for inline links, even though it is a frequent security complaint. Embedded images may be used as a
76:(HTTP), does not make any distinction of types of links—all links are functionally equal. Resources may be located on any server at any location.
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Some webmasters will try to directly link to your images from their pages. Luckily, a simple configuration change provides the necessary fix.
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154:. Banner ads are images hosted by a company that acts as middleman between the advertisers and the websites on which the ads appear. The
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When a browser downloads an HTML page containing such an image, the browser will contact the remote server to request the image content.
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Pay-per-content services may attempt to restrict access to their content through complex scripting and inline linking techniques.
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The ability to display content from one site within another is part of the original design of the Web's
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Content sites where the object is stored and from which it is retrieved may not like the new placement.
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information. This leaks information about the browsed pages to the servers hosting the objects (see
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attacks may include inline links to a legitimate site to gain the confidence of a victim.
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A placeholder image used when attempting to hotlink to a website which disallows it
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Some websites hotlink from a faster server to increase client loading speed.
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452:"Image quality degradation as a hotlink prevention measure and deterrent"
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30:"Hotlink" redirects here. For the Malaysian prepaid mobile service, see
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risk deteriorating the user experience on the third-party website.
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explained why inline linking did not violate US copyright law:
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to track users or to relay information to a third party. Many
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browser tools will restrict this behavior to varying degrees.
386:"Is Inline Linking To An Image Copyright Infringement?"
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Use of a linked object on one web page to a second site
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United States Court of
Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
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The requests for inline objects usually contain the
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83:files to be processed. These files may contain
72:The technology behind the World Wide Web, the
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302:Copyright issues raised by inline linking
450:Aleksandersen, Daniel (30 August 2016).
131:, individual stories on servers such as
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271:Some servers are programmed to use the
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430:"Smarter Image Hotlinking Prevention"
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310:Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc.
181:Controversial uses of inline linking
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384:Mike Masnick (6 January 2010).
93:<img src="picture.jpg" />
406:Thomas C Greene (2007-02-20).
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475:487 F.3d 701 (9th Cir. 2007).
114:medium. Common uses include:
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428:Thomas Scott (2004-07-13).
359:Ross Shannon (2007-02-26).
158:tag may specify a URL to a
127:stores its "front page" at
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408:"Vista Security Oversold"
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491:Internet terminology
363:. yourhtmlsource.com
231:web visitor tracking
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32:Maxis Communications
410:. theregister.co.uk
273:HTTP referer header
141:images.slashdot.org
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133:games.slashdot.org
361:"Bandwidth Theft"
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461:1 September
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485:Categories
436:2007-11-16
414:2007-11-16
392:2014-02-15
388:. Techdirt
367:2007-11-16
344:References
238:Prevention
152:banner ads
81:stylesheet
42:hotlinking
501:Hypertext
112:hypertext
327:See also
227:referrer
222:content.
201:phishing
193:context.
163:request.
125:Slashdot
119:"link").
62:leeching
257:web bug
213:on the
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219:faults
215:client
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288:Flash
463:2016
199:and
89:URLs
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172:or
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