I found sites hotlinking photos on Wikimedia... is there a place that I can report them??
Thanks, Rayson
On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 7:20 PM, Rayson Ho raysonlogin@gmail.com wrote:
I found sites hotlinking photos on Wikimedia... is there a place that I can report them??
Thanks, Rayson
I don't think hotlinking is a problem, though I may be wrong.
Hello,
I don't see why it should be reported, I mean MediaWiki makes it possible for other wiki's to hotlink Wikimedia Content.
When Wikimedia doesn't allow or support hotlinking the should have disabled it serverside.
On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 1:30 PM, Huib! Abigor@forgotten-beauty.com wrote:
Hello,
I don't see why it should be reported, I mean MediaWiki makes it possible for other wiki's to hotlink Wikimedia Content.
When Wikimedia doesn't allow or support hotlinking the should have disabled it serverside.
Indeed http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/InstantCommons feature DOES exist (setting a configuration variable on a mediawiki installation allows to use directy commons images, outside wikimedia)
http://intelligentdesigns.net/blog/?p=91 (Erik Moller's blog)
-- *Huib Laurens*
Web: Forgotten-beauty.com http://www.forgotten-beauty.com.com/ Email: Abigor@forgotten-beauty.com mailto:abigor@forgotten-beauty.com
Commons-l mailing list Commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l
Thanks for the replies. Media files should not be hot-linked... but after a bit of googling, I still could not find what to do to report them...
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Reusing_content_outside_Wikimedia#...
Rayson
On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 1:30 PM, Huib!Abigor@forgotten-beauty.com wrote:
Hello,
I don't see why it should be reported, I mean MediaWiki makes it possible for other wiki's to hotlink Wikimedia Content.
When Wikimedia doesn't allow or support hotlinking the should have disabled it serverside.
-- *Huib Laurens*
Web: Forgotten-beauty.com http://www.forgotten-beauty.com.com/ Email: Abigor@forgotten-beauty.com mailto:abigor@forgotten-beauty.com
Commons-l mailing list Commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l
I believe the policy you're linking to isn't longer in use, or is a kind of double. Since the creation of the http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgForeignFileRepos plugin every mediawiki installetion can use Commons, and as far as I know its supported by the Foundation.
I checked the Foundation site but couldn't find a policy against hotlinking, so I don't think the Foundation doesn't want stuff hotlinked, and if the do the could do it very easy with a server configuration.
But again, why should the MediaWiki core supports Commons if the Foundations doesn't support hot linking?
Hi,
On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 9:52 PM, Rayson Horaysonlogin@gmail.com wrote:
Thanks for the replies. Media files should not be hot-linked...
As far as I know, the latest official position of Wikimedia system administrators was that hotlinking was not an issue.
On 8/6/09 11:20 AM, Rayson Ho wrote:
I found sites hotlinking photos on Wikimedia... is there a place that I can report them??
We strongly encourage reuse of our materials, and we don't mind hotlinking.
The nature of the web itself is very pro-linking; "hotlinking" is the natural way to use an image on the web that exists in a stable location. IMO hotlinking-phobia is mostly due to smaller sites discovering that a large chunk of their bandwidth is being taken up by somebody else using their image that they didn't want to be reused in the first place... which is not the case we find ourselves in! :)
If we do find particularly egregious abuse we might poke an exception for technical reasons, but that'll be something we'd do behind the scenes. There's no need to report or try to shut down general hotlinking of images from Commons, Wikipedia etc.
-- brion
Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 14:12:11 -0700 From: brion@wikimedia.org To: commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Commons-l] Where to report hotlinking?
On 8/6/09 11:20 AM, Rayson Ho wrote:
I found sites hotlinking photos on Wikimedia... is there a place that I can report them??
We strongly encourage reuse of our materials, and we don't mind hotlinking.
The nature of the web itself is very pro-linking; "hotlinking" is the natural way to use an image on the web that exists in a stable location. IMO hotlinking-phobia is mostly due to smaller sites discovering that a large chunk of their bandwidth is being taken up by somebody else using their image that they didn't want to be reused in the first place... which is not the case we find ourselves in! :)
If we do find particularly egregious abuse we might poke an exception for technical reasons, but that'll be something we'd do behind the scenes. There's no need to report or try to shut down general hotlinking of images from Commons, Wikipedia etc.
-- brion
Commons-l mailing list Commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l
_________________________________________________________________ Feliz aniversario Messenger! www.aniversariomessenger.com.mx
2009/8/6 Brion Vibber brion@wikimedia.org
On 8/6/09 11:20 AM, Rayson Ho wrote:
I found sites hotlinking photos on Wikimedia... is there a place that I can report them??
We strongly encourage reuse of our materials, and we don't mind hotlinking.
The nature of the web itself is very pro-linking; "hotlinking" is the natural way to use an image on the web that exists in a stable location.
I'm happy from this since I currently use hotlinking from Commons into web communities, forums and so on. More, if I have some interesting personal picture to share into a community, and I presume that such a picture could be useful to any other user of the web here or there into the net, I usually upload it into Commons then I hotlink it. So, a "free hotlink policy" can directly encourage upload into Commons; nevertheless a good categorization (a very difficult aim) is mandatory, and this aim could be difficult to obtain when the uploader is mainly interested to hotlink his uploaded file. So, while encouraging "free hotlink policy", I advocate any effort to ameliorate categorization and to make it easier and easier.
Alex Brollo wrote:
I'm happy from this since I currently use hotlinking from Commons into web communities, forums and so on. More, if I have some interesting personal picture to share into a community, and I presume that such a picture could be useful to any other user of the web here or there into the net, I usually upload it into Commons then I hotlink it. So, a "free hotlink policy" can directly encourage upload into Commons; nevertheless a good categorization (a very difficult aim) is mandatory, and this aim could be difficult to obtain when the uploader is mainly interested to hotlink his uploaded file. So, while encouraging "free hotlink policy", I advocate any effort to ameliorate categorization and to make it easier and easier.
-- Alex
We shouldn't encourage hotlinking. Technically, it's not an issue but you shouldn't consider it a "supported" usage either. Basically, you're on your own.
Although most images are kept invariant and we try not to break the links, images *do* get deleted/renamed. You have no guarantees that the image won't get deleted (specially if you're the uploader and it's not a educational image). Moreover, the content of your blog/posts could be modified by uploading a new image over the one you use. We strive to avoid image vandalism, but after all, this is a wiki. And your readers expectation will be that it's the image you originally wanted to link to, not that it's a wiki-modifiable image.
If you're hotlinking from your web, you should copy the image and include the image that is on your web space (you can link to the image page for more versions, license compliance, etc.).
If still want to hotlink commons images, you should *Enable email notification on your preferences http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences when you get a message on your talk page. This way you won't miss a notification about a delete request for an image you uploaded.
*Watchlist the images you use. This way you can from time to time view http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Watchlist and verify nothing nasty has happened to those images.
(You can also opt to receive an email when there're changes to those pages)
2009/8/7 Platonides Platonides@gmail.com
We shouldn't encourage hotlinking. Technically, it's not an issue but you shouldn't consider it a "supported" usage either. Basically, you're on your own. https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l
Don't matter, I'm an old wikipedian... deeply involved into the spirit of the project. Nevertheless, I work too into other web projects, and when I feel that an image deserves to be shared for its content and instructional character, I upload it into Commons. I keep a backup of all my images obviuosly. :-)
Thanks for all the answers guys!
Rayson
On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 5:24 AM, Alex Brollo alex.brollo@gmail.com wrote:
2009/8/7 Platonides Platonides@gmail.com
We shouldn't encourage hotlinking. Technically, it's not an issue but you shouldn't consider it a "supported" usage either. Basically, you're on your own.
Don't matter, I'm an old wikipedian... deeply involved into the spirit of the project. Nevertheless, I work too into other web projects, and when I feel that an image deserves to be shared for its content and instructional character, I upload it into Commons. I keep a backup of all my images obviuosly. :-)
-- Alex
Commons-l mailing list Commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l
Of course, even though hotlinking is allowed technically, you still need to comply to the licensing terms for those media files, e.g. give attribution to the author and put a link to the license text.
-- Hay
On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 5:00 AM, Rayson Ho raysonlogin@gmail.com wrote:
Thanks for all the answers guys!
Rayson
On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 5:24 AM, Alex Brollo alex.brollo@gmail.com wrote:
2009/8/7 Platonides Platonides@gmail.com
We shouldn't encourage hotlinking. Technically, it's not an issue but you shouldn't consider it a "supported" usage either. Basically, you're on your own.
Don't matter, I'm an old wikipedian... deeply involved into the spirit of the project. Nevertheless, I work too into other web projects, and when I feel that an image deserves to be shared for its content and instructional character, I upload it into Commons. I keep a backup of all my images obviuosly. :-)
-- Alex
Commons-l mailing list Commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l
Commons-l mailing list Commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l
On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 10:59, Hay (Husky) huskyr@gmail.com wrote:
Of course, even though hotlinking is allowed technically, you still need to comply to the licensing terms for those media files, e.g. give attribution to the author and put a link to the license text.
Yes, I was thinking that. I suppose hotlinking is done through the "raw" url, which means access to the licence page is simply not happening. Not a problem if people actually credit the authors/respect the licence by adding the necessary info on their website. Not too cool if they don't.
Cheers,
Delphine
2009/9/16 Delphine Ménard notafishz@gmail.com:
Yes, I was thinking that. I suppose hotlinking is done through the "raw" url, which means access to the licence page is simply not happening. Not a problem if people actually credit the authors/respect the licence by adding the necessary info on their website. Not too cool if they don't.
Indeed. Hotlink just means that you put the URL of an external source into the "src" attribute of an <img> tag, e.g.
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Titan-crystal_bar.JPG/300px-Titan-crystal_bar.JPG" />
Because it's not the server of the website that loads this url, but the users browser it is a bit difficult to see if an image is actually hotlinked, although it can be prevented.
-- Hay
On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 13:00, Hay (Husky) huskyr@gmail.com wrote:
2009/9/16 Delphine Ménard notafishz@gmail.com:
Yes, I was thinking that. I suppose hotlinking is done through the "raw" url, which means access to the licence page is simply not happening. Not a problem if people actually credit the authors/respect the licence by adding the necessary info on their website. Not too cool if they don't.
Indeed. Hotlink just means that you put the URL of an external source into the "src" attribute of an <img> tag, e.g.
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Titan-crystal_bar.JPG/300px-Titan-crystal_bar.JPG" />
Because it's not the server of the website that loads this url, but the users browser it is a bit difficult to see if an image is actually hotlinked, although it can be prevented.
I don't think Wikimedia should prevent it though, for all the reasons mentionned earlier in this thread, just that we want to make sure people use the right licensing terms. I haven't read all the links, so maybe all is explained on meta or Commons :)
Delphine (lazy)
2009/9/16 Hay (Husky) huskyr@gmail.com
Because it's not the server of the website that loads this url, but the users browser it is a bit difficult to see if an image is actually hotlinked, although it can be prevented.
-- Hay
What about adding/editing some basic EXIF data (author,licence) into uploaded Commons files that support them, like jpg? They can be deleted by a malicius user into downloads, but they will be saved when hotlinked. I don't know if any EXIF managing is currently done on Commons files; IMHO it could be useful, for a number of reasons, and not only for hotlinking.
As a "hotlinker" (far from a very active one), thanks for your comments, as I told you I use hotlinkg mainly into "volatile" communication tools like forums and not into websites. It would be great if an informative box would be added to File: page, containing a brief mention to general Mediawiki politics about hotlinking and the html code for a correct hotlinking, if really needed.
Alex
On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 7:29 AM, Alex Brollo alex.brollo@gmail.com wrote:
What about adding/editing some basic EXIF data (author,licence) into uploaded Commons files that support them, like jpg? They can be deleted by a malicius user into downloads, but they will be saved when hotlinked. I don't know if any EXIF managing is currently done on Commons files; IMHO it could be useful, for a number of reasons, and not only for hotlinking.
[snip]
EXIF data is fine, but it doesn't really suffice for attribution: No on will find it; it's effectively not there.
Unfortunately all that metadata is currently stripped for any thumbnails. So in the common case that they hotlink a thumb you don't even get that much.
On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 1:29 PM, Alex Brollo alex.brollo@gmail.com wrote:
As a "hotlinker" (far from a very active one), thanks for your comments, as I told you I use hotlinkg mainly into "volatile" communication tools like forums and not into websites. It would be great if an informative box would be added to File: page, containing a brief mention to general Mediawiki politics about hotlinking and the html code for a correct hotlinking, if really needed.
As Gregory indicated already, EXIF data is not a really good way to add attribution metadata to files.
However, i think some way to make it easier for people to add images to their pages using some kind of easy tool on the File: page itself, akin to the YouTube embed code is a pretty good idea. Maybe some kind of iframe or Javascript gadget would be nice, that could also be used for attribution and indicating that more media are available on Commons.
-- Hay
On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 3:59 AM, Hay (Husky) huskyr@gmail.com wrote:
Of course, even though hotlinking is allowed technically, you still need to comply to the licensing terms for those media files, e.g. give attribution to the author and put a link to the license text.
Not a real concern to me... as I don't have a website or blog, and I don't use media files from commons outside of Wikipedia, and all of my uploads (over 200 photos & videos) were released into the public domain.
Since from a traffic point of view hotlinking is acceptable, may be we should delete this section then:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Reusing_content_outside_Wikimedia#...
Rayson
-- Hay
On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 5:00 AM, Rayson Ho raysonlogin@gmail.com wrote:
Thanks for all the answers guys!
Rayson
On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 5:24 AM, Alex Brollo alex.brollo@gmail.com wrote:
2009/8/7 Platonides Platonides@gmail.com
We shouldn't encourage hotlinking. Technically, it's not an issue but you shouldn't consider it a "supported" usage either. Basically, you're on your own.
Don't matter, I'm an old wikipedian... deeply involved into the spirit of the project. Nevertheless, I work too into other web projects, and when I feel that an image deserves to be shared for its content and instructional character, I upload it into Commons. I keep a backup of all my images obviuosly. :-)
-- Alex
Commons-l mailing list Commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l
Commons-l mailing list Commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l
Commons-l mailing list Commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l
2009/9/17 Rayson Ho raysonlogin@gmail.com:
Since from a traffic point of view hotlinking is acceptable, may be we should delete this section then: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Reusing_content_outside_Wikimedia#...
I've changed the text there to say "hotlinking is fine" but with a few notes of caution. (Images may be changed/vandalised/deleted, thumbnails are just a cache copy and so are not reliable, please credit as you would a copy on your own server - that last to deal with the "insane licensor" problem.)
- d.