Hi all :)

I'm sure many of you are already aware that NHF opposes people’s decision to post our material on other sites. Everything posted by the members here – whether that’s fanart, caps, avatars and/or screenings all belong to them and has been posted here at NHF. No one here reserves the right to post them elsewhere, unless they have the permission from the original owner of the work. It’s simply a copywrite infringement and against our rules.

The main reason I bring this up is because a member has been posting some of our material on another site. The site is a bebo site > http://www.bebo.com/Default.jsp

Unfortunately, none of us have accounts with the site so we cant contact the member in question but if any of you do have an account there, please pm a moderator, Kate or me. It would be a great help. :)

If the member in question is reading, please remove all our pictures ASAP, otherwise we’ll be forced to take further action!

Thanks :)

EDIT - I'd also like to make a point about hot linking. Please don’t hotlink using other people’s accounts. This is theft as it’s not your material to use. It also uses up the owners bandwidth. By hot linking, ultimately you are using material, which someone here is paying for. This is not something we endorse here at NHF.

I have a bebo account if you want me to help?!

Thanks Tor and for everyone else today, who have pm'ed me, letting me know that they have a bebo account. :hug:

A member pm'ed me immediately this morning and has been in touch with the person in question so it's under control and should be sorted pretty soon now. :thumb:

Thanks again. :)

Your welcome and glad things are getting there slow

What is hot linking? I am being thick again?

I don't know what it is either gemsie! :$

Thought I should add something that is important to everyone who joins NHF. ^_^

In the past, if we have found a website that has stolen our NHF material or our own personal work, we have been very successful in getting the website(s) in question shut down. Now, not saying we like doing this because we don't! In fact, its not very fun for us having to deal with something like this. But we have no choice on certain occasions. When we deal with a problem like this, we ask the member(s) to remove our work or face getting shut down. They have a warning which we expect to be taken seriously. In fact, we have warned a few people more than once in hope that we do get taken seriously and they just blatantly ignore us. So by ignoring us and keeping our stolen work on their website, they face getting shut down for copyright infringement and theft. End of.

So in one simple sentence: Don't steal from NHF. :blink: :naughty:

It'll do us all a favour, trust me! :nod:

I've PM'd you luce and gemsie :)

Thanks Ella! :thumb: :hug:

PM me too please! :lol:

could you PM me to Ella

could you PM me to?

Sorry if my explanation wasn't very clear folks.

I don’t upload images etc myself so I'm not that familiar with it but from what I gather...

Hot linking is basically direct linking to a web site's files (for example, images, clips, fanart, music). Really, they're not yours to link unless you have the permission from the owner.

For every time you click on hot linked image, you're costing the original owner money. This is why it's seen as theft. You're using something you're not paying for. That's why they refer to it as "using up bandwidth". Bandwidth refers to the amount of data transferred to a website.

I hope that's cleared it up. :thumb: :) If any one else wants to elaborate on that, feel free! :thumb:

I understand now, thanks Alisha
:hug: :)

I've a couple of things to add with regard to hot-linking which are probably best explained by example.


~~~

Let's say I upload images to my web server & then post them on NHF. Every time someone views the image the following is logged:

1). The refering site (in short, the site the images are posted on).

If only links to pics are posted another piece of info is also recorded.

2). The IP address of the person who clicked the link. (Which amongst other things identifies the Internet service provider of that person).

If the images are being requested by anywhere other than NHF I can find out who the registered owner of the site is and where it's hosted within 30 seconds.

~~~


In my day job when I find someone ripping off content by hot-linking I email the registered owner off the domain and give them 24 hours to clean up their site (That's a courtesy, I'm not required to). If they don't comply I contact their hosts, give them the details of the infringement (theft. ;) ) and get the site suspended.

Now obviously when someone hosts their pics via Imageshack/Flickr/Photobucket etc they can't see the stats I mentioned, but the techie bods at the photo-hosting site can. ;) Likewise, if someone hot-links to images via a social-networking site (e.g. LJ, Bebo, Facebook) or hosted forum (e.g. Invision, EZBoard) they run the risk of having their profile/board deleted entirely.

End of ramble, I need a coffee. :lol:

Thanks for that Sholly :D :thumb:

Thanks Alisha, I didn't want to tread on any toes. ;)

Another thing that might be of interest to those who are tempted to *ahem* borrow other peoples stuff - It's incredibly easy to prove when a piece of fanart was created or a pic was taken.

Take a look at this picture on Flickr , see all the info there? Most of it wasn't added manually, it was added by the camera when the photo was taken & by photoshop when it was edited.

Sure, that info can be deleted, but it can't be changed. Providing the person who took the pic or made the fanart keeps a copy of their original (with all it's EXIF data intact) a thief will be stuffed. If it came down to proving ownership who'd look more credible, a person who's stripped an image of it's data or one who can provide a creation date? ;)

I'm sure I've seen a screencap which was from here on some random Myspace not so long ago. I think it was one of Ann's. Frank Skinner I think. :huh:

I really can't remember where and can't find it in my browser's history. I'll try to find it again.

Well you learn something everyday! :lol:

Thanks for the clarification.

Ah I still don't get why some people keep doing this!

I mean, just do your own thang dammit! :rolleyes:

Anyway I'm glad this is sorted though.

Good job! ;)

Thanks for the heads up Dee :)

If you (or anyone else) does manage to track it down, please contact a member of staff. :thumb: