Linking Pictures and Pages

Definition of direct linking or bandwidth theft, also known as hot linking

• Posting or otherwise using an image which is hosted on web space you are not authorized to use. This drains bandwidth from that web space and costs its owner money every time the page containing the image is viewed.

You May Not

• You may NOT copy a picture (also known as "copy and paste" or "cut and paste) from my site and paste it to your site. This does not actually copy the picture, but merely copies the URL from my site. This causes the picture to be downloaded from my server every time someone looks at your site. 
• You may NOT make a link from your site, discussion group or forum to my server that causes a picture to be downloaded from my site each time your page is accessed. This increases the bandwidth on my site and costs me money.

You May

• Download a picture from my site to your computer (right click & 'save as...) to upload to your server for use on your web site
• Establish a link to one of my pages from your web site
  (Example: "For a brilliant examination of early Icelandic sagas, see: <http://www.llywelyn.net/iceland.html">)

To Sum Up

• The ONLY way you may use a picture from my site is to download it to your PC and then use that downloaded picture to upload to your site, forum or discussion group.
• In other words, you can link to a page but you CANNOT link to a picture.

What will happen if you link a picture from my site?

I check the origin of hits to my site and if I find any of my pictures linked to your site, I change them. I won't try to find you. Suddenly when you thought you were linking to this (a very popular theft)....

You will link instead to this:

This means I now control the content of your site. It's easy for me to do.
If you want to remain in control of your own web site, do not use mine as your server.