Blocking MySpace Image Links - Wasted Bandwidth

[cnc]

My site is built using traditional ASP (Classified Ads) and ASP.Net (Forum Software) on IIS 6 and I am getting tons of MySpace users linking directly to my images (not pages).

Is there a way to block or redirect those requests? I'd like to keep users that are referred from MySpace and are requesting ASP pages.



Something like this:
Step 1)
If if HTTP_REFERER like "%myspace%" and URL like "%ASP%" then
set referer to "" and redirect to requested page.


Step 2)
if HTTP_REFERER like "%myspace%" and URL like "%jpg" then return 404

My thinking this would have to be at the IIS level.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

[amycrawford]

I'd like to know how to do this as well, but with standard html pages. My site stats are constantly skewed as these direct link to images are counted as referrals, which drives me crazy.

Looking forward to some help on this!

Amy

[davidmg]

Would not allowing right clicking prevent this from happening.
<SCRIPT language=JavaScript>
<!--
function click() {
if (event.button==2) {
alert(' sorry the right button has been blocked !');
}
}
document.onmousedown=click
// -->
</SCRIPT>

[wmrobwl]

Originally Posted by davidmg

Would not allowing right clicking prevent this from happening.
<SCRIPT language=JavaScript>
<!--
function click() {
if (event.button==2) {
alert(' sorry the right button has been blocked !');
}
}
document.onmousedown=click
// -->
</SCRIPT>

I guess that would prevent people from getting the properties by right clicking on the picture, but what if they get the info from the html source? Or what if they turn javascript off in their browser to grab the images?

[stuff_4_beauty]

All they do then is view source and get it - I have a ton of the myspace linking directly to my images and ebay sellers do it too. Right click disable does not stop them.

[soniqhost.com]

Try this site, it should be helpful.

altlab.com/htaccess_tutorial.html

[caromero1965]

Hi,

Since you're on a Windows platform, you can do this with an ISAPI filter.

If your hosting company is willing to install such a thing, you can use "ISAPI Rewrite" or "IIS Rewrite" to get Apache-style URL rewriting on IIS. I've used ISAPI Rewrite to block off-site image links for a couple of years now-- works flawlessly, no problems. IIS Rewrite looks similar-- I forget why I didn't choose that one instead.

http://www.isapirewrite.com/
Microsoft also mentions this tool, though I haven't tried it:

http://port80software.com/products/pagexchanger/
If you can't use a filter, or if you're determined to do it for free or do it yourself (not fundamentally a bad idea), you can try this:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...lrewriting.asp

The article explains how to use ASP.Net to achieve much the same results as the ISAPI filters will provide. Performance will be slightly worse, I suspect, but so what? and you can probably do this even if your host isn't willing to install ISAPI filters.



-A

[theoart]

If you are on an Apache server than it is pretty easy with the .htaccess file to prevent bandwidth leaches. There is a lot of articles on this as well. But with ASP it is a little more complex. Here is a great article that you might find useful.
http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/webtech/110398-2.shtml

I work in ASP mainly so have been able to stop bandwidth theft this way. Other than that, I would recommend the rewrite option above.

[imvain2]

Here are a couple of ideas that are a little more involved.

Save your images as blobs into a mySQL or whatever database, and pull your images back through an ASP script that checks the referrer. If the referrer ins't your server then display a replacement image stating something about the image being stolen or advertising your website.

I saw someone do this because people were linking to his images on their ebay auctions, so he put a rather odd xrated picture of some guys together. I also someone else use a similar method because yahoo kept using their photos in their articles.

Another idea requires ASP.image.

[pemburung]

Amy and stuff4beauty, check with your host - if you can check your site's control panel, or whatever, it's called for yur host. There may be a hotlink disabler in place, which you can activate.

For anyone who's just getting one image popped from html you can rename the image. And have some fun. Rename the whole page (and of course adjust on-site links; don't do this if you think legitimate sites are linking to the page), then create a new page with the old name. Get a nice image of something pretty obnoxious, name it the hotlinked name, and put it up.

[rlmrdl]

Originally Posted by imvain2

Here are a couple of ideas that are a little more involved.

Save your images as blobs into a mySQL or whatever database, and pull your images back through an ASP script that checks the referrer. If the referrer ins't your server then display a replacement image stating something about the image being stolen or advertising your website.

If people are linking to your images from MySpace you also have a potential audience with an interest in your stuff.

The optimal solution would be to provide the image with a small credit overlaid inviting people to visit the site. If you could serve it with a hotlink as well it would be perfect.

I have no idea how you would do this, but if you can treat your MySpace links as a marketing opportunity, go for it.

[4imc.com]

There are some easy alternatives - You hosting provider may already be able to provide that as a resource in your control panel look for HotLink Protection. This is where you can place restrictions on hot linking as well allow other domains to create a hotlink. A Hosting Provider that has this available is http://www.IMCWebHost.com.

Another way to stop the use of your images is to greate your pages and then overlay a blank image. Similar to some of the previous comments about having another pic show up instead. But now they have a really cool blank spot there.

I would rather gain that usefullness of the hot link by creating the image as an animated gif even though you don't have it animated it will allow you to embed your domain or landing page to the image so when it's clicked on it takes them to the rightful owner "Your Site"

[pemburung]

rlmdrl, mostly myspace users are not interested in your products or site, but just looking for a nice backdrop image, or an image to project a "pretend it were me" or " this is how I see myself" picture. It may not be many users per se - every time someone clicks on the hotlinked site, it pulls the link, using bandwidth, but you only get one real link. Embedding the link may be OK for some - maybe stuff4beauty would find this useful if the landing page had something that got attention - but for a lot of sites, there's no point - I don't think some 15 year old is going to buy one of our $5000 tours to Patagonia. But due to a couple of great images, and a few obviously very popular girls, our stats were showing the number one through three referrals were from Myspace and Xanga.

[imvain2]

Originally Posted by 4imc.com

There are some easy alternatives - You hosting provider may already be able to provide that as a resource in your control panel look for HotLink Protection. This is where you can place restrictions on hot linking as well allow other domains to create a hotlink. A Hosting Provider that has this available is http://www.IMCWebHost.com.

Another way to stop the use of your images is to greate your pages and then overlay a blank image. Similar to some of the previous comments about having another pic show up instead. But now they have a really cool blank spot there.

I would rather gain that usefullness of the hot link by creating the image as an animated gif even though you don't have it animated it will allow you to embed your domain or landing page to the image so when it's clicked on it takes them to the rightful owner "Your Site"

Overalying a blank image is fine and dandy but the person still can view source and get the original.

Saving as an animated gif, won't create links back to cnc's website.

Another solution is to pull the images through flash. Inside the flash put action script to check the referrer/server name and if its different from yout website, use geturl("your website"); to redirect the user back to your website.

[TrafficProducer]

I beleive this (May only work with LINUX host) No Right Click is more powerful than normal No-Right Clicks:-

(BACK UP ALL FILES FIRST) Do a temporary copy upload and check the site works first, (as this does some more complex code changing onload), if the site functions OK then replace the normal site with the temp upload and retest...

No Right Click Disable the right click on your pages to prevent users from "borrowing" images from your site and viewing your page source!

As stated above your Host should allow Hot-Link protection, well that is if you are using cPanel.

(May only work with LINUX host) This can be a bit time consuming as if I remember correctly each image has to be Hot-Link prevented individually, and then if you add a new image this also has to be Hot-link protected. (I believe Hot-Link protection on the Host uses .htacess) and this may be worth checking out as well.

[Clint1]

Originally Posted by cnc

My site is built using traditional ASP (Classified Ads) and ASP.Net (Forum Software) on IIS 6 and I am getting tons of MySpace users linking directly to my images (not pages).

Is there a way to block or redirect those requests? I'd like to keep users that are referred from MySpace and are requesting ASP pages.

Something like this:
Step 1)
If if HTTP_REFERER like "%myspace%" and URL like "%ASP%" then
set referer to "" and redirect to requested page.

Step 2)
if HTTP_REFERER like "%myspace%" and URL like "%jpg" then return 404

My thinking this would have to be at the IIS level.

Any thoughts?
Thanks

These criminals have also been doing this to me for quite some time now. I am fed up with the condoning of theft and copyright violations by MySpace, and the last time I emailed them about this theft and bandwidth theft, I told them that we would file a Lawsuit against them. copyrightagent@myspace.com . I suggest the rest of you do the same. They continue to allow it, even after I "suggested" to them they had better email all their members and inform them that this is not tolerated. Yet, they refuse to do anything about it. They must be stopped, and yes, it too is happening with me with Ebay as well, whom also condones it.

Now one of the things you can do for now, is enable "Hot Link Protection" if you have the cPanel hosting package. Your logs will still continue to fill up with MySpace parasite hits, but the stealing webpage will have on it an "X" where your stolen image should be. This is a mod to your .htaccess file (to which someone mentioned), and it can also be done by manually editing the file if you don't have this "Hot Link Protection" area. If you need to know how to do this, let me know.

[Clint1]

Originally Posted by rlmrdl

If people are linking to your images from MySpace you also have a potential audience with an interest in your stuff.

The optimal solution would be to provide the image with a small credit overlaid inviting people to visit the site. If you could serve it with a hotlink as well it would be perfect.

I have no idea how you would do this, but if you can treat your MySpace links as a marketing opportunity, go for it.

The problem here, at least what I'm talking about, is it's just an IMAGE with NO LINK BACK to your site. You not only receive no credit for the image, no link back therefore no traffic TO your site from the MySpace parasite page, but they are also taking your bandwidth.

I even told MySpace.com that their users COULD USE some of my images, save them to their OWN HD's & upload them somewhere ELSE, as long as they put a link back to my site saying from where they got the image! Yet, they also ignored that. They already have several Lawsuits against them regarding child porn/predators, someone must "police" that place and hold them accountable for what they have been doing.

[Clint1]

Originally Posted by pemburung

For anyone who's just getting one image popped from html you can rename the image. And have some fun. Rename the whole page (and of course adjust on-site links; don't do this if you think legitimate sites are linking to the page), then create a new page with the old name. Get a nice image of something pretty obnoxious, name it the hotlinked name, and put it up.

LOL. That's hilarious. Awesome idea. :-D

[imvain2]

In cases of copyright infringment its the duty of the copyright owner to take action, then myspace would ban the users, or whatever. Its not myspace's job to hunt down every image that is hotlinked and determine if its copyrighted or not. Simply stated, myspace is not in the position to determine what content is copyrighted and whom does and doesn't have permission to use it.

So if you are the original copyright owner and you contact myspace in regards to the infringement and which the users, it should be their responsibility to take action.

[Clint1]

Originally Posted by imvain2

In cases of copyright infringment its the duty of the copyright owner to take action, then myspace would ban the users, or whatever. Its not myspace's job to hunt down every image that is hotlinked and determine if its copyrighted or not. Simply stated, myspace is not in the position to determine what content is copyrighted and whom does and doesn't have permission to use it.

So if you are the original copyright owner and you contact myspace in regards to the infringement and which the users, it should be their responsibility to take action.

Yes, well I think that's what we're talking about here, right? Anything original you upload to your website is protected under the DMCA. Yes, it IS the responsibility of MySpace.com to do something about it, but what I was getting at is they don't unless you threaten them. I didn't insinuate that MySpace do any kind of "tracking", I said they are obligated or should be obligated to simply send out an email to all members (which they do anyway regularly) and inform them that this "action is illegal and will not be tolerated" or something to that affect. They however refuse to do this simple thing. They never ban any members either. About a dozen times (and COUNTING) I've had to contact them regarding image theft usage and each member's page still remains.

I'm fed up with having to check my logs every day and see them filled up with stolen image hits from MySpace.com URL's, then check out the page, send them the source code and tell them once again some parasite is HL'ing to my images. I'm going to send the a bill for the tracking I have to do and hours I've wasted on this. A simple email from MySpace.com to their members as I suggested stating engaging in this behavior will result in being banned would stop this, or at least cut it down to almost nothing.

[TenTonJim]

I found a site hotlinking to a firefox button... I emailed them asking them to just copy it and upload it to their own server but they never responded. I noticed in their HTML that they were not explicitly defining the height and width of the image... so I renamed the firefox button image and replaced it with this... it totally blew out their site and got some free advertising for what it was worth anyway... it took about 3 days before they took it down :)

Here is the image...
http://tentonweb.com/btn/takebacktheweb128x49.gif

the original is the little firefox button on the left at http://tentonweb.com/

[philscanlan]

Originally Posted by TenTonJim

I found a site hotlinking to a firefox button... I emailed them asking them to just copy it and upload it to their own server but they never responded. I noticed in their HTML that they were not explicitly defining the height and width of the image... so I renamed the firefox button image and replaced it with this... it totally blew out their site and got some free advertising for what it was worth anyway... it took about 3 days before they took it down :)

Here is the image...
http://tentonweb.com/btn/takebacktheweb128x49.gif

the original is the little firefox button on