Hot links to .jpg's. Good or Bad?

Hotlinking jpg

[longen]

Sinse SE's don't have the technology to determine what value an image has, other than by user spammed tags, should they not consider a (hot) link to a .jpg as a vote, just as they would if it were a html file.
Html and image files are really the same, objects that contain information - so why not treat rank them as such.
If your monthly bandwith isn't being exceeded, is it best to leave hot links in place?

[LifeinAsia]

I think hot links to images should suck the entire PR of the page and give it to the site being hot linked.

Hot linking to other people's images is a sin on the same level as stealing people's copyrighted content. Even more so, since you are stealing that person's bandwidth in addition to their intellectual property.

Unfortunately, this won't ever happen, because there's no way to know if the person has actually received permission to use the image or is just another scumbag hot linker.

[Beagle]

...should they not consider a (hot) link to a .jpg as a vote, just as they would if it were a html file.

An interesting question, though, as in one forum I belong to I hotlink to images on my own "hobby" site fairly often. I've also given a few people specific permission to do so, since I'm in no danger of going over my bandwidth alotment on that site. You're linking to the URL of the image, though, not of the page, which might make a difference in how the SE's see it.