Sometimes I insert pics into my posts without uploading them to imageshack or an similar sites first. I only do this when I know the pic is hosted on a major sever and it won't matter much if it goes stale. But what is the correct thing to do? Should I never hotlink or is it ok when I take the precautions I do?
A good way to do it would be to upload the image to your hidden gallery (or a visible gallery) in your homepage here, then hotlink to that. Then you know it will be there indefinitely and are not relying on the retention policy of an image sharing site. Plus it will probably load a bit quicker as it's all on the same site. Or you could just attach the image to the thread, but then there is no way of showing it full size in the thread (you only have a clickable thumbnail). Images being expired on an image sharing site is not really a problem generally. By the time that happens the thread you hotlinked them in will probably have fizzled out anyway, or if it's still active the missing images will be several pages back. Note that you must not upload copyright material (apart from your own copyright) to your gallery here. So if you want to include that you'll need to hotlink it from elsewhere.
Thanks for a good reply. Didn't know I could include pics from a hidden album in my posts. That solves most of my problems. As far as uploading copyrighted material it's difficult since everything is copyrighted unless licensed differently. But in most cases the "creator" won't mind it being distributed. So it becomes a diffuse topic matter. Of course you have to say what you have to say
A lot of the stuff in galleries and linked to in threads is self-pics and photos of pets etc where the copyright would be owned by you, a friend or someone in your family who allow you to use the photo, so copyright not an issue. The "copyright" reference is really for professional photos such as press photos of celebs. We don't really want these in people's galleries here so they would be better hotlinked from elsewhere.
Yeah I get what you're saying here and will obviously adhere to it. But to be difficult (and I'm nothing if not difficult) a press photo or other professional photo isn't any more copyrighted than other photos by dent of being so. All photos are copyrighted by default, unless I've gotten this wrong? But of course it's only the professional photographers who cares so it's them we can't copy photos from.
Indeed all photos are copyright by the person who took them unless there is an agreement or statement otherwise. With personal photos, although they are copyright, you would have permission to use them (either specifically or assumed) so they are not a problem. The issue is photos that are copyright by others where you are not able to get permission to use here. It's not so much about whether or not they are copyright, it's about whether or not you have permission from the copyright owner to use them. Hotlinking to copyright photos on other sites is generally OK because they are not hosted here. The other site then still have control over their material because they can remove or rename the photos which would break any hotlinks. You should really check the terms of use at the other site to see if such use is permitted, but I doubt many people do!
