This is archived content from our old site.

Please visit our homepage to see our all new singing and dancing site!

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Tom's Wholesale Bandwidth Thief

Seems our buddy Tom Raftery has stirred up a bit of hornets nest again. Apparently some other blogger, Noah Kagan, was hotlinking an image from Tom's site. So Tom, as he is prone to do, called him on it - originally titling that post Noah Kagan Is A Thief. The reaction in the comments made him backdown slightly but not entirely. I've mentioned hotlinking before, we get quite badly done by it, and have generally taken a quite liberal approach to the problem - mostly because the people who did it probably didn't know any better. However sometimes, when it is blatantly obvious that the person in question should know better, it has annoyed me enough to want to find a way around it. Noah Kagan seems to have been around for some time now and really should know better, yet he seems to be doing it wholesale. Many commenters on Tom's site say he should have sent out an email to Noah asking him to remove the image before going public. Horseshit. If you know some sham, an unrepentent thief, living down the road from you has robbed you, is it out of order or sensationalist of you to call the police? No, of course not. If you found that your next door neighbour was tapping into your electricity, would it be frowned upon for you to scream blue murder at him on the street? I don't think so. Noah Kagan, from even the most cursory glance at his site, steals bandwidth without a thought and Tom was right to call him on it. Yes, Tom overreacts sometimes but he got it spot-on this time.

Email to a Friend

6 Comments:

frankp said...: I can't agree. Hotlinking is not a crime. It's not illegal and it's not obvious to many that it's in any way wrong.

It's a matter of etiquette. Or 'netiquette' as people seem to be calling it now.

The assumption that everyone knows hotlinking is frowned upon is ridiculous.

From what I understand it is relatively easy to stop hotlinking - the reason we don't do it is because we brand pretty much all the images people would hotlink to in order that any hotlinking still benefits us to some degree.

I found the internet police type comments on Tom's blog really annoying... if you are dead set against hotlinking then use your htaccess file to stop it.

Why depend on people's knowledge of 'netiquette'?

Like most matters of etiquette you have no control over others understanding of it, only your own.; 2:55 AM
Allen said...: I can't agree either mate. Tom should have stopped when Noah apologised and given examples of bandwith theft. End of story.

What happened was OTT and an example of Cyberbullying. Tom lost perspective and dug himself a hole.

http://www.bullyonline.org/related/cyber.htm; 1:33 PM
Tom Raftery said...: How do you know it is not a crime Frank? Seriously.

The guy is stealing - whether he is aware that he is doing wrong or not doesn't take from the fact that this is stealing. And he is doing it wholesale - check his site. Ignorance of the law is not a defence.

And, as Bif said the guy is around a long time and has a degree from UC Berkely so he's no fool.; 1:37 PM
Bif said...: First off, Allen, he hasn't stopped. He hotlinks images all over his site. Secondly, I don't see what Tom was supposed to stop. Was he supposed to refuse to answer comments on his site?

Frank, you're legal/illegal point is just fudging. I'm guessing it probably is illegal if someone could only find a way to prove/enforce it but, either way,I don't need someone else to tell me what's right and wrong. I said it in my post (and in other posts) that we do tolerate people hotlinking because for the most part I assume they don't realise it's wrong and they are generally well intentioned. I have probably even given tacit approval of it. So no one is assuming anything - except that a guy who has been around as long as this guy, and blogs on the subjects he does, should know better.; 2:02 PM
frankp said...: I know plenty of people who have degrees and have been around a long time and I would consider them complete idiots.

Bif, Tom, I'm not fudging, it's not illegal.

If you think it is, report it to the guards. Have fun. :); 3:36 PM
Bif said...: And your point?

Frank, I said you were fudging the isuue because I don't believe it matters if it's illegal. It's still wrong and a guy who considers himself enough of an expert on tech issues to blog on the subject should know it. I'm only suggesting it might be illegal in some vague, abstract form because if I'm paying for a service e.g. electricity and you start using that service without my permission, I could have you done for it. No it's not something that has a specific applicable law and yes it'd be near impossible to follow through on but, by a pretty strict definition of the word, it is theft.

Frank. Report any crime to the guards. Have fun. :); 3:54 PM

Some Previous Musings

Free Funny Cartoons

We now provide large and small size automatically updating cartoons for your site or blog. The small size is perfect for narrow columns on blogs. Get the code now to put our funny cartoons on YOUR site...

Odds & Ends

You might recognise some of these, and some of them are self-explanatory. Either way, you can click on them to see what they are!