wordpress.com allow hotlinking to other server images?
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Are wordpress.com hosted free blogs allowed to hotlink to images stored on non-wordpress.com servers?
What does the user agreement say, if anything, on this activity?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Please do not post the same question twice.
Yes, you’re allowed to hotlink, provided you’re authorized to use the image. If you’re not, then no.
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Where is the user agreement part you are referencing?
Hotlinking to any images, authorized or unauthorized, is not illegal to my knowledge. I do not believe there is any case law prohibiting hotlinking to images on other servers.
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If you don’t have permission from the original image owner then it’s consider content theft if you hot link the image.
Also Terms of Service
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Raincoaster, I just took a look at your website and you have dozens of images on your own server that I highly doubt you own the copyright to.
Hosting images you do not have a copyright to on your own server is without a doubt a copyright violation.
Hotlinking to an image is quite a different matter where your blog server does not host the image in question. The information in the hotlink is merely an http address to the image on another server and does not include the image itself.
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Okay if your just posting a link to the image that’s not consider content theft nor hot linking.
But in the terms of hot linking is considered stealing because hot linking means broadcasting the image on your site if you don’t have permission this can simply land you in court if the image owner decides to take action.
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This seems to touch on the matter:
Copyright Infringement and DMCA Policy. As Automattic asks others to respect its intellectual property rights, it respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that material located on or linked to by WordPress.com violates your copyright, you are encouraged to notify Automattic in accordance with Automattic’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (”DMCA”) Policy. Automattic will respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the infringing material or disabling all links to the infringing material. In the case of a visitor who may infringe or repeatedly infringes the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of Automattic or others, Automattic may, in its discretion, terminate or deny access to and use of the Website. In the case of such termination, Automattic will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid to Automattic.
Although it does not specifically prohibit hotlinking, it remains to be know what Automattic’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (”DMCA”) Policy actually is on hotlinking to unauthorized content on other servers.
How can an “img src…” tag be a copyright violation?
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your best bet is to contact a lawyer that can give you free advice WordPress volunteers and staff are not obligated to give legal advice.
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t3ck,
Are you saying that wordpress.com does not allow hotlinking to other server images on their free hosted blogs?
If a copyright holder complains to WordPress about an image hotlinked to in this way, will WordPress reqire the hotlink to be removed?
As we all know, most blogs hotlink and host copyrighted images not their own. it would be great to get a clear understanding of the law on this issue.
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Here’s the deal.
Let’s say you hotlink to an image on my blog and I find out.
If the blog is here bandwidth is not a problem.
Where my blog is, bandwidth really would cost me money.
Either way, I don’t like it.So…
1. I contact you and ask you to remove it.
or
2. I remove the image from my blog which removes it from you
or
3. I replace the image with one you seriously would not want on your blog.Or they can contact us and we remove the link.
Hotlink all you want but recognise that you have zero control over that content and things like goatse and tubgirl could make an appearance (I’ve seen this done many many times) (And if you google those terms be aware that the images are absolutely totally Not Safe For Work. You can’t un-see things… so be warned).
My advice? Don’t hotlink, don’t copy. Ask and you may well get permission.
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OK, Mark, it seems you have answered the question with:
“Or they can contact us and we remove the link.”
WordPress does take a proactive role in removing hotlinks if requested to do so.
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We do, yes.
It is bandwidth theft and the owner of the image has not given their permission for that piece of work to be displayed where it is.If your photo was on your About page and someone hotlinked that, and they did not remove it when asked you would expect us to help. So the same applies for everyone.
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