Bandwidth theft
December 19th, 2003
Bandwidth theft hasn’t been a big problem here for a while, but at one time whenever I posted a link to a video I could count on numerous links (usually from message boards) directly to the video. People would download the file without ever reading my entry or even realizing that TBOTCOTW existed.
So here’s the fix — you just use Apache’s incomparable mod_rewrite to check the referrer every time someone downloads a gif, jpg, png, or asf file.
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://tbotcotw.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.tbotcotw.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/images/stealer\.gif$
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg|png|asf)$ /images/stealer.gif [NC,L]
If the referrer isn’t related to TBOTCOTW, they get sent this cool little button. Anyone that tries to steal my bandwidth by posting on a message board with one of my images ends up outting themselves as a dirty thief.
Popularity: 2% [?]
That’s cute, but look at your technorati profile now.
Ha! I’ll have to add technorati to the allowed list.
Wah! I need to learn how to do this now. Our hostess was just charged five hundred bucks because of sites in Korea hotlinking our images.
Damned, dirty thieves.
You’re letting those little hogs off pretty easy, don’t you think? Your image is nothing compared to the horror that is the Something Awful penalty for hotlinking images. *shudder*