What is Copyright Protection?

What Is Bandwidth.

 Bandwidth is the amount of data sent between one computer to another. When you called up this page and the graphics on it, the data was sent from the server to your web browser and stored on the hard drive of your computer, usually in your cache directory. This data is measured in bytes and added up make your bandwidth usage. Some Internet Service Providers charge web site owners if they use over a previously agreed amount of bandwidth per month. This is where the problems start.

How Is It Stolen.

 Bandwidth is stolen when a person links directly to an image from someone else's server.  The more people linking to a particular image or set of images, the bigger the problem becomes for web site owners who see their costs rise, sometimes to the extent of having to shut down their sites.

How to tell if you are being "Hotlinked"

 Right Click on the image and select properties.. the url for the graphic is on there if it is something other than the url for the site it is on then it is being hotlinked!

Possible consequences for the Bandwidth Thief.

 Stealing other peoples bandwidth or images can lead to a variety of problems. First of all linking to other peoples graphics in the way described above leaves you with no control of those images what so ever. So if the images are deleted, or file you will find your site one day without images.
Linking to graphics from multiple servers will add significant download time to your web site, giving visitors the perfect reason to move on elsewhere before your page has even loaded.
If someone finds you "Hotlinking" to images on their server (and they will), they could replace the images with ones you didn't expect to see. This could be anything from an image outing you as a bandwidth thief to something offensive.  Misusing someone else's bandwidth could result in you being sued.
If you find someone doing this to you, a firm but polite e-mail informing them that what they are doing is wrong will usually do the trick. Thankfully the majority of people who do "Hotlink" do so out of ignorance or misunderstanding and will happily rectify their mistake.