Inline linking

src: public-media.interaction-design.org

Inline link (also known as hotlinking , leech , piggy-backing , direct link , outside shooting ) is the use of linked objects, often images, on a single site by a web page belonging to the second site. One site is said to have inline links to other sites where the object is located.

Video Inline linking

Tautan sebaris dan HTTP

The technology behind the World Wide Web, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), does not differentiate link types - all links are functionally the same. Resources can be found on any server in any location.

When a website is visited, the browser first downloads the text content in the form of an HTML document. Downloaded HTML documents can call HTML files, images, scripts and/or other file stylesheets for processing. These files may contain the & lt; img & gt; that provides a URL that allows images to be displayed on the page. HTML code generally does not specify a server, which means that the web browser must use the same server as the parent code ( & lt; img src = "picture.jpg"/& gt; ). This also allows an absolute URL that refers to an image hosted on another server ( & lt; img src = "http://www.example.com/picture.jpg"/& gt; ).

When a browser downloads an HTML page containing such images, the browser will contact the remote server to request the image content.

Maps Inline linking

Common use of linked content

The ability to display content from one site to another is part of the original design of the hypertext Web media. Common uses include:

• This is a copyright violation to make copies of works that are not licensed, but there is no infringement when you provide a simple text link in an HTML document pointing to the location of the image or the original file (simply called "links").
• Web architects can deliberately separate a site's image on a single server or a group of servers. Hosting images on a separate server allows the site to share bandwidth requirements between servers. For example, a high-volume site, Slashdot, stores "front page" in slashdot.org ; individual stories on the server like games.slashdot.org or it.slashdot.org ; and presents images for each host from images.slashdot.org .
• An article on one site may choose to refer to images or copyrighted content on other sites through inline links, which can avoid rights and ownership issues that copying original files may increase. However, this practice is generally not recommended because of the loading of bandwidth generated from the source, and the source provider is often offended because the viewer does not see the entire original page, which provides the desired image context.
• Many web pages include banner ads. Banner ads are images hosted by a company that acts as an intermediary between the advertiser and the website on which the ad appears. Tags & lt; img & gt; can assign URLs to CGI scripts in the ad server, including strings that uniquely identify sites that generate traffic, and possibly other information about the person who viewed the ad, previously collected and associated with the cookie. The CGI script specifies which images will be sent in response to requests.
• Some website hotlinks from the server are faster to increase the loading speed of the client.
• The hit counter or Web counter indicates how many times the page has been loaded. Some companies provide hit counters that are managed offsite and displayed with inline links.

src: public-media.interaction-design.org

Controversial use of inline linking

Blurring borders between sites can cause other issues when the site violates user expectations. At other times, inline linking can be done for malicious purposes.

• The content sites where the object is stored and where it was taken may not like the new placement.
• Inline links to images stored on other sites increase the bandwidth usage of the site even if the site is not viewed as intended. A possible complaint is the loss of advertising revenue or alter perceived meaning through an unapproved context.
• Cross site script and phishing scams may include inline links to legitimate sites to gain the trust of a victim.
• Pay-per-content services may try to restrict access to their content through complex script-making and inline techniques.
• Inline objects can be used to perform drive-by attacks on clients, exploiting errors in code that interpret objects. When an object is stored on an external server, the referrer site has no control over if and when the content of the previously useful object is replaced with malicious content.
• Requests for inline objects usually contain referring information. It leaked information about the page being browsed to the server hosting the object (see web visitor tracking).

src: pp.userapi.com

Prevention

Client side

Most web browsers will blindly follow URLs for inline links, even though this is a frequent security complaint. Embedded images can be used as web bugs to track users or pass information to third parties. Many ad filtering tools will restrict this behavior to many levels.

Server side

Some servers are programmed to use HTTP referrer headers to detect hotlinks and return cursory messages, usually in the same format, replacing expected images or media clips. Most servers can be configured to protect some of the hosted media from inline connection, usually by not serving media or by serving different files.

URL rewrites are often used (for example, mod_rewrite with Apache HTTP Server) to reject or redirect hotlinks attempted to images and media to alternative sources. Most types of electronic media can be transferred in this way, including video files, music files, and animations (such as Flash).

Other solutions typically combine URL rewriting with some special server-side script scripts to allow hotlinks for a short time, or in more complex settings to allow hotlinks but return alternative images of reduced quality and size and thus reduce the bandwidth load when prompted from remote server. All hotlink precautions risk worsening the user experience on third-party websites.

src: home.heinonline.org

Issues of copyright law that create inline links

The most significant legal fact about linking inline, relative to copyright law considerations, is that inline links do not place copies of image files on their own Internet servers. Instead, the inline holder places a pointer on its Internet server that leads to the server where the image owner placed the image file. This pointer causes the user's browser to jump to the owner's server and retrieve the image file to the user's computer. The US court considered this a decisive fact in the analysis of copyright. Thus, in Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc. , the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit explains why inline links do not violate U.S. copyright laws:

Google does not... display a copy of a full size infringing image for the purposes of the Copyright Act when Google frames an online-related image that appears on a user's computer screen. Because Google computers do not store still images, Google does not have a copy of the image for the purposes of the Copyright Act. In other words, Google has no "material object... where a work is repaired... and from which works can be viewed, reproduced, or communicated" and thus unable to communicate a copy. Instead of communicating a copy of the image, Google provides an HTML instruction that directs the user's browser to a publisher's website computer that holds full-size photo images. Providing these HTML instructions is not equivalent to displaying a copy. First, the HTML instruction is a line of text, not a photographic image. Secondly, the HTML instruction itself does not cause the infringed image to appear on the user's computer screen. HTML only gives the image address to the user's browser. The browser then interacts with the computer that stores the infringed image. This interaction causes the broken image to appear on the user's computer screen. Google may facilitate user access to the offending image. However, such assistance only raises the issue of contribution responsibility and does not constitute a direct infringement of the copyright owner's display rights.... While in-line connection and framing may cause some computer users to believe that they are viewing a Google web page, Copyright Act... does not protect copyright holders against the [...] action....

src: i.ytimg.com

See also

• Copyright aspects of hyperlinking and framing
• Deep links
• Awareness link
• VReel

src: www.engineswapdepot.com

References

Source of the article : Wikipedia