Ideas and Bandwidth Thievery

[slim]

Hallo all,

I'm just posting a thread here as a heads up to those of you who host images that you post here. Whilst idly browsing through my website's stats page last night, I came across a number of referring sites that weren't CaB. The most prolific of these was this site:

The Fourth Libra

It turns out this site was hotlinking to pics posted here. So, intrigued, I signed up to the site to see why. It turns out someone there is replicating several threads from VM, including Televisual Puns and Gags, without crediting CaB, the original posters, or even quoting text accompanying the images posted here.

Lord knows why anyone would want to do it. I've checked with the powers that be here and it's certainly without any kind of permission. So, as bandwidth costs money, I thought you'd all appreciate a pointer.

Now before you all toddle off over there to register and voice your distaste (if you have any), apparently registration isn't on at the moment, so perhaps my registering gave them a fright. Regardless, I'm looking into a way to block the site from hotlinking to my pics.

[butnut]

Bastards!

[Purple Tentacle]

"An error has occured: You are not allowed to access this board."

What total cunts!

[Flook]

I just got - only admins can perform registrations at the moment.

I think they saw us coming...

[slim]

Well, whoever owns the board has either noticed my registration and wised up, or seen the post here. Either way, my account has been deleted. Just as I was about to share the login details with everyone too :/

[fanny splendid]

Do you know what there IP address is?

[untitled_london]

Hijack the hotlink from your end...seems to be the consensus.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/untitled_london/thread%20dump/leecher.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/untitled_london/thread%20dump/ghey.gif

are two of my favourites.

:D

If the admin can't instruct their users to have the decency to use photobucket or image shack then screw them.

Do you know what there IP address is?

ping thefourthlibra.proboards29.com

68.246.60.107

[fanny splendid]

I'm not getting their address, but I am getting lots of this:

XXXX:+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

That's if it's the same people?

Edit: just seen your post Untitled, thanks.

[butnut]

Would it be an idea to create a CaB offical watermark to try and stop this kind of thing?

[slim]

If the admin can't instruct their users to have the decency to use photobucket or image shack then screw them.

I'm pretty sure the poster was the admin - the TV Puns thread was certainly started by and posted to by one person only. It was basically an exact replica of here but without the text or poster info. Most odd.

Anyhoo, isn't the problem with using those lovely images you posted that they will be shown on threads here too?

[slim]

I'm not getting their address, but I am getting lots of this:

XXXX:+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

That's if it's the same people?

I think that's just an anonymous referring HTTP header, isn't it? If so, it could be from anywhere.

[Beagle 2]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/untitled_london/thread%20dump/leecher.jpg

For christ's sake i'm having me tea!

[untitled_london]

If the admin can't instruct their users to have the decency to use photobucket or image shack then screw them.

I'm pretty sure the poster was the admin - the TV Puns thread was certainly started by and posted to by one person only. It was basically an exact replica of here but without the text or poster info. Most odd.

Anyhoo, isn't the problem with using those lovely images you posted that they will be shown on threads here too?

yeah, we'd have to lock/re-construct our own thread.

sucky, but the temptation to have 100 goatse's, maggot brains and the like all over their board is quite a strong pull.

[edit]

Sorry beagle, thats why i didn't inline it.

[fanny splendid]

I'm not getting their address, but I am getting lots of this:

XXXX:+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

That's if it's the same people?

I think that's just an anonymous referring HTTP header, isn't it? If so, it could be from anywhere.

Ah really, I didn't know that. I have since found some from the fourth libra place.

[slim]

Would it be an idea to create a CaB offical watermark to try and stop this kind of thing?

Can we just tag this on the bottom of our images? :)

[slim]

Ah really, I didn't know that.

That was just a best guess, I could be wrong. There's probably someone around who knows.

[splattermac]

they have 15 members, are you that bothered?

Unless of course you have a really small allowance like 50MB?

*boast* I have 6GB a month so when I see people linking to my stuff, 15MB avi files and buggering avatars I don't really sweat it because each month I rarely break more than 2.5GB transferred.

I'd worry if they linked you to b3ta or the BBC but what's the chances of that, apart from horsegun, sproglette and the shrek/rooney one?

Just think of all the linking we do, I'm sure it balances out.

what do you think a fourth libra is?

[sproggy]

what do you think a fourth libra is?

Two pairs of black & white stripey horses with speech impedements?

Loads of stuff gets felched from here, just try doing a google on the title of one or two of your pieces, I bet you'll be amazed at how many places they turn up (unaccredited usually)

[Jet Set Willy]

I hosted a 100Mb file so i could give it to a couple of "friends" and then I put it on a forum of the particular artist involved, which is pretty small.

But then about 2 months later my whole 6Gb monthly bandwidth was eaten in one day because some shit had put the link on some general music forum.

Serves me right for not deleteing it really eh?

[Cerys]

Cunts.

[slim]

they have 15 members, are you that bothered?

Not really, the above image was a bit of a joke. I thought it best to raise the issue as some people may have limited bandwidth.

Anyway, it was my understanding that hotlinking is just impolite. Especially when someone's just reproducing threads in their entirety without even asking.

Just think of all the linking we do, I'm sure it balances out.

Aye, 'tis true. It just got my goat when I saw the whole threads there, I'd only visited out of idle curiousity.

[poison popcorn]

i can't get in to see it anyway. is it dead? i have limited bandwidth i believe from graffiti.net, but i usually link from photobucket so i don't really care. that bastards.

[Rubbish Monkey]

ignore this idiot

[poison popcorn]

er... which one?

i am a bit of a computer spacker... have i spacked up?

of course if you meant that website i'll be ignoring it anyway as i can't see it.

[Rubbish Monkey]

this 'ere one.

As for that site its in some kind of posh maintaince mode (well it sounds posh) so i can't see it either... I was kind of hoping that it would contain spooky doppelgangers of us like some kind of alternate reality CaB, where they have slightly different names such as Pleasant Popcorn, Fanny Rancid, maccasplat and so on.

I don't watch that much star trek..... honest.

[glitch]

If you're bothered about bandwidth thieves and your host can interpret .htaccess files then try put this in a text file and upload it to a directory of images:

Code Select Expand


Rewriteengine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^.htaccess$ - [F]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?xerode.net/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?b3ta.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://chilled.cream.org/.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(gif|GIF|jpg|JPG|png|PNG|jpeg|JPEG)$ http://www.xerode.net/error/laughingman.png [R,NC]


This redirects most browsers to an image (change the url from http://www.xerode.net/error/laughingman.png to whatever comedy image you want) if they hotlink from any host other than the ones listed  (the xerode.net, beta.com, chilled.cream.org urls). Make sure the error image is stored in a directory "higher" in the tree than the images, otherwise it will also be blocked.

Hope that helps...

[fanny splendid]

Cheers for that, I'll try it out tomorrow.

[fanny splendid]

I have pasted that info a text file, and have changed the error picture URL, then saved the file as .htaccess, and uploaded it into a test directory, but it doesn't seem to be working?

This is my .htaccess file.

Code Select Expand

Rewriteengine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^.htaccess$ - [F]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?xerode.net/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?b3ta.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(gif|GIF|jpg|JPG|png|PNG|jpeg|JPEG)$ http://www.clareanderson.co.uk/manutd.gif [R,NC]

It is in a directory called test which contains one gif file (reduced.gif) which I have posted in the test thread in Website Whines. I presumed that the manutd.gif would appear in it's place?

[glitch]

Heh, I forgot a couple of bits of info. I blame that on the time of the posting and my flu/cold/thing!

The text file will have to be converted to Unix format. I don't think Notepad can do this, but an editor like Vim can.

You have to include your own url in the allowed hosts, otherwise it blocks it like any other referer.

Here's the (updated) file for images stored in a directory named "test"

Code Select Expand


Rewriteengine on
RewriteBase /test/
RewriteRule ^.htaccess$ - [F]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?clareanderson\.co\.uk/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://chilled.cream.org/.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(gif|GIF|jpg|JPG|png|PNG|jpeg|JPEG)$ http://www.clareanderson.co.uk/manutd.gif [R,NC]


This should allow images to be viewed from your own host and CaB only. If it doesn't work then check with your hosting company that the server is Unix and allows mod_rewrite in .htaccess files.If it still doesn't work give me a shout, as I might have missed something vital out.

[Abbie]

Fanny - did you get this working?  I am failing miserably and Easily aren't being much help - all they said was:

"The code below (same as yours above) is from the httpd.conf file and not the .htaccess files, unforunately we don't custom modify them for clients."