"Hotlinking is bad", we are told. "Hotlinking is the bandwidth theft", we are told. Vices and evils of hotlinking are described in gory details at The Source.
But wait a second... What if I want to promote someone's work, and that someone is someone I've never met, have no commercial interest vested into, nor desire to communicate with, it's just I like their work and think they deserve their fifteen minutes of fame?
Should I copy the picture to avoid stealing their bandwidth? Well, but copying is stealing, we are told.
Should I provide a plain hyperlink? But with the information density of today's Internet a link will most probably just go unnoticed.
So I'm just going to settle with the assumption that the bandwidth "stolen" is not actually stolen, but is, in fact, a fair price paid for the exposure the author gets. Provided the link is not disemboweled (as, say, http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2605/3964180788_0627f1c922.jpg) and backlink is readily available - just like the image above.
Now go nudge this photographer and make him give you a chance to order his prints.
(Image Credit: Cullen :P)
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