Hot linking is the embedding of an image from someone else's web page in yours. It's not so much the bandwidth cost that bothers web hosters, although that's an issue. It's that their work is displayed without credit to them, *and* they are paying for you to do it to them. That just rankles. In addition to what Thomas said about the image disappearing, they can do worse. When a major magazine did that to me, i replaced the image with one that had text in it naming the magazine as thieves. I don't know if they ever realized it. I sent them email, but never got a response. Someone who is really vindictive could replace the image with porn. I've seen it done. Point being, hot linking can turn out really badly for the hot linker. However, hot linking does not refer to linking to a web page. That is generally referred to as deep linking, when it isn't a web site's landing page. Phil. On Jan 6, 2013 1:10 AM, < transitional-genealogists-forum-request@rootsweb.com> wrote: > > Message: 3 > Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2013 13:37:59 -0800 > From: Patricia Kinzie <pat.kinzie@gmail.com> > Subject: [TGF] Hot Linking > To: transitional-genealogists-forum@rootsweb.com > Message-ID: > < CAOfn1uasuA_raF2Q5UMaiy6L4HLRzMzUqEAAMcpft5Zu6iNPDw@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > Could someone explain to me what "Hot Linking" means? I understand it to > be direct linking of graphics. I found it on a copyright page regarding a > gravestone picture. Does this means that if one gets permission from the > original submitter that a reference to the gravestone web site is not > permitted? ((for example, www.gravestonesite.com) > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2013 16:45:34 -0600 > From: "Thomas Macentee" <tmacentee@gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [TGF] Hot Linking > To: "'Patricia Kinzie'" <pat.kinzie@gmail.com>, > <transitional-genealogists-forum@rootsweb.com> > Message-ID: <000001cdeb96$60c13930$2243ab90$@gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > I know "hot linking" from website and blog design: most sites discourage hot > linking which means that rather than you storing the image on your own > server, you create an image link to another site's server. This is > discouraged because you are forcing that other site to increase its > bandwidth (which costs money) rather than you increasing your own site's > bandwidth to display the image. > > If you've gotten permission to use an image, I would do the following: > download the image, host it on your site or blog, and then include in the > caption the phrase listing the source and that permission was given. You > also might ask that site for clarification as to what they understand is > "hot linking" > > Finally, one of the pitfalls of hotlinking is this: that site could remove > the image, rename it or move it and that means you have just an image frame > on your site with no image . .. > > Hope this makes sense. > > Thomas MacEntee > Founder, High-Definition Genealogy > http://hidefgen.com > +1 (773) 661-3080 >