The Bandwidth Thieves

I really debated with myself about posting this acidic diatribe. But I won the argument (or lost, depending on your own half-full/half-empty view of life) and decided to vent a little bit.

There is a process called Hot-Linking. This is where a person on one website can display an image (or video or flash object) on their site that actually resides on another website that is not their own. Most all websites have a limit to the amount of traffic, or bandwidth, that they can handle. The site that has been hot-linked has to bear the bandwidth cost for the pirating site that is displaying their image. For the people or companies that own their own sites, this is considered bad form, rude, and yes, it amounts to theft. Pure & simple.

Since I have moved to my own site-location, I have a bit more control over the hot-linking issue. Yes, I hot-link myself. BUT I'm only hot-linking from my own site, and then most always for my participation in the few forums I suscribe to. I can also keep a close watch on my site to see who is trying to hot-link from me. Of course, the control I now exercise prohibits the image pirate from being successful at it. A broken image icon is the most they can expect out of my site.

IMHO, online forums and the MySpace site not only allow this kind of behavior, they actually encourage it. Well, not really encourage, but they don't seem to have any policy concerning hot-linking. Hot-linking is just plain rude behaviour. I'm being shoplifted behind my back, and these pirates somhow believe they have to RIGHT to do it.

Now if I'm contacted by somebody that asks me nicely if they can hot-link images from my site, I'd be much more inclined to work with them to produce something that would benefit us both. Heck, even if they were to copy/download/steal my images to their own site, I couldn't stop that. At least they wouldn't be a bandwidth vampire on my site. I don't have any outside advertising here, so that means that I pay for all of this myself.

heh heh! Just because I don't have any advertising, doesn't mean that there won't be. I just haven't been approached with anything yet that tempts me.

Anyway, since I've been keeping close tabs on the access to my site, I've amounted a small list of names that are trying to hot-link to me. And I'm gonna out them, too. Here's the list...

Paul Halpin - July 26, 2006 [Self-Loathing Comics #1]
Just trying to show a comic cover in his StumbleUpon site.

sympatheticdevil - July 28, 2006 [Cherry's Jubilee #1]
Trying to use the image as a forum avatar.

alfredo - July 28, 2006 [Oat Willie #1]
Part of a forum posting.

My Pet Robot - August 9, 2006 [American Splendor #16]
Announcing his acquisition of this comix by hot-linking mine.

Seattle Hempfest 2006 - August 18, 2006 [Hemp for Victory]
Showing a collection of hemp related images. Probably ALL of them hot-linked.

billyleopard - August 27, 2006 [Every Cherry Poptart cover I've got]
His homage to a defunct comic store.
Apparently after seeing that his theft wasn't working, he removed that post.

C'mon folks. Ask nice. I'm a reasonable guy. But I'm not a Caspar Milquetoast.

You Tube, I Tube, We all Tube...

I've found an unexpected resource over at YouTube. A couple of videos I've found make a nice addition to their respective pages. My Cheap Thrills album with artwork by Robert Crumb is one of them. There's an interview with Robert Crumb where he talks about how he came to create this album art. Pretty interesting, actually.

The other one is a comic called "Hemp for Victory". Its based on a 1942 film produced by the Department of Agriculture. Damn if I didn't find that film there. And now its on my site as well.

Now this got me to thinking. Definitely a dangerous pasttime for me. Please bear in mind that this was a rushed, no-plan, first draft. I'm actually working up something a little more polished. At least that's how I'm deluding myself. So what da hey, check it out...

Lil' Ol' Sticker Maker, Me

Here's a fun thing to do. I had a bunch of these old Avery 5293 labels lying around. So me 'n PhotoShop decided to put 'em to use. Now I have a bunch of underground comix labels that I can annoy countless people with. I'm going to stick them up wherever I go. If you happen to be in the Los Angeles area, and see one of my stickers somewhere, let me know. Better yet, if you take a photo of it, I'll post it here as a sighting.

If you click on the picture, you'll get a little better resolution image of 'em. I used the images from (left to right) Fat Freddy's Comics & Stories #1, Hup #4, Mickey Rat #1, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers #10, and the back cover of Rip Off Comix #15, featuring Wonder Wart Hog.

I'm always open to suggestions about the next set of stickers that I make. Drop me a line!