GWPImages

[keyplyr]

UA: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; GWPImages/1.0)
Protocol: HTTP/1.1
Robots.txt: No
Host: serverel.com
31.148.246.0/24
31.148.246.0 - 31.148.246.255 (alfatelecom.cz 31.148.244.0 - 31.148.247.255)
95.47.138.0/24
95.47.138.0 - 95.47.138.255
109.206.160.0/19
109.206.160.0 - 109.206.191.255
146.120.158.0/24
146.120.158.0 - 146.120.158.255 (alfatelecom.cz 146.120.152.0 - 146.120.159.255)
...and possibly other ranges.

This bot is a scraper in the classic sense. It will GET all image files & PDF from your site. The UA will always display a referrer for one of their 20+ image sites, example:
abcimage.com
123picgallery.com
awesomeimages.com
etc...
(these are not the real URLs. I don't want to help them.)

These are cookie-cutter versions of each other with your image files hot-linked. Their servers host no images themselves.

IMO Block with extreme predjudice!

[lucy24]

These are cookie-cutter versions of each other with your image files hot-linked. Their servers host no images themselves.

So your ordinary hotlink protection will keep them out, won't it? (Won't keep the request out of logs, but will keep their users from seeing your pictures.)

A while back I looked up photosensitive epilepsy and then made a new NO HOTLINKS logo that toggles between two equally horrible colors at a leisurely pace of 2/second (enough to annoy, not enough to induce seizures). So far, though, I haven't had the nerve to upload it.

[keyplyr]

Yes, easy to block. However file swapping is a tricky endeavor if your site is responsive unless every hot-linking site is explictly listed and in this case there are just too many of them IMO.

I do file swap a hot-linking image categorically to blogs, forums and other similar remote sites, but have opted to just block this thief by UA. Of course I also block the afore mentioned server ranges.

Added - I'm always amazed when I see a copyright notice at the bottom of a thief's web site. I can only assume it is an attempt to appear legit.

[lucy24]

file swapping is a tricky endeavor if your site is responsive

I serve the same image to everyone; it's only about 2K. (The animated GIF is, sadly, closer to 7K, so that's another reason not to enable it.) I use a rewrite instead of an [F] because the image is intended to be annoying. That way hotlinkers-- at least the clueless human ones-- are more likely to remove the link as soon as they notice, or someone complains.

My 403 page isn't really set up for refused image requests. Even though the requester will never see it, the server still has to assemble it. Much more work than a 2K png.

I'm always amazed when I see a copyright notice at the bottom of a thief's web site. I can only assume it is an attempt to appear legit.

<topic drift>
My favorite in this regard is an obscure 19th-century novel-- name suppressed because I've got it on my site-- whose content is 100% plagiarized from other works. Well, 99%; she changed the names. Huge chunks, anywhere from a paragraph to multiple chapters, all spliced together. And then, so help me, the novel itself is copyrighted; it carries a notice of filing in suchandsuch regional office, which happens to be the identical office that some of the donor works' copyrights were filed in. Apparently nobody ever noticed ... until the internet came along, making everything all too easy.
</td>

I also like when someone posts the entire content of a movie or TV episode on YouTube, and then puts up the boilerplate about "no infringement intended". I think they got the idea from old-style chain letters that always included a reference to some (fabricated) postal regulation that ostensibly made it all legal.

[keyplyr]

file swapping is a tricky endeavor if your site is responsive

What I meant by that statement is the results are sometimes buggy. I had a standard anti-hot-linking image rewrite in my base htaccess that worked perfect for years. Then after going responsive (like a kid with a new toy) I went around looking at my site on everyone's mobile device. I was teaching at the local univ at the time so I had opportunity to see my site on hundreds of mobile phones. I was alarmed to see my hot-linking image displayed on my own pages for dozens of phones.

I discovered the *no referrer* allowance is buggy when it comes to mobile proxies; could never figure out why. Anyway, I then moved the rewrite into each specific directory & modified the code to list each referrer specifically and omitted the *no referrer* allowance. Works as intended now.

RE: copyright infringement
I find my articles republished (without my permission) on forums and blogs all the time. I usually am alerted because the unsuspecting thief included my 1x1 transparent gif that I bury in the article just for this reason.

I send the usual Cease & Desist to the page owner, their host, and the upstream provider (if one is available.) That always works to get my property removed, however quite often the poster will go on an endless diatribe trashing my character - irony at its best.

[Leosghost]

I still have an Image on one site that has a watermark of "stolen from example.com" in large letters across it, back from before I discovered how to block the hot linkers, someone "had used it" as a sample of "their work" for an item they were selling on Ebay and many other similar platforms..

The surprise bandwidth jump ( back in the days when an extra gig over an already small bandwidth allowance meant a big bill ) alerted me..

I added the watermark and left it hot linked for a couple of days..

Got a very irate email from the hot linker, calling me all kinds of names in two languages, saying how "I'd made them look dishonest";) and that " I should be grateful for the exposure"..

Fortunately for the person in question they were a 800 km round trip from me..I was sorely tempted to visit and ask them to say the insults again, to my face this time..