Bandwidth

[franceslievens]

Question: Am I "stealing bandwidth" when I, instead of linking to the web-page that contains a picture, decide to directly link to the picture? I do not put the picture on my page with an img-tag, but I put up a link to the image instead.

(If you're wondering: check the link in the last post which ended up being a 403-forbidden. I do not mind that happening. I was simply wondering when you're stealing bandwidth and when you're just being rude.)

Comments

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't call that stealing bandwidth - you're directing someone to a picture posted elsewhere on the web. Of course, it affects their bandwidth, but it's not like you've pasted the picture into your site and thus use someone else's bandwidth for your site.

One could argue that with a direct link to the picture you remove it from its context on the original website. Maybe that's something people don't appreciate.

Also, I couldn't see the pic at any time - so I don't think it's a bandwidth issue, more a control thing.

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

I could see the pic at first and then got the 403-forbidden page, which meant I couldn't directly go to the pic. I thought along the same lines you did: the picture was taken out of its context, so the person might have disliked that.

[mbangel10.livejournal.com]

If it's only a link and you're not embedding the image from the website then no, that would not be stealing bandwidth.

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

Thought so. Seems some people don't like direct links without context either, which isn't so strange after all, is it?