How can I prevent hotlinking?

  • Many blogs are hotlinking images from mine. I want to prevent this.

    Is there a simple option, preference, or even a good plug-in that I can use to stop this from happening?

    (I have searched, and found some topics, but none gave me a clear cut answer, as far as I can tell)

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • You could do it via htaccess or if you’re not comfortable with that you can try the Hotlink Protection Plugin. I think the plugin is more fun. You can use its own default image or create your own. (use your imagination) Note: this plugin DOES NOT prevent hotlinking but what it WILL DO is show the image of your choice on the sites of those doing the hotlinking.

    Add the following to your .htaccess file using a plain text editor.

    RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https://(.+\.)?mysite\.com/ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteRule .*\.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png)$ /images/nohotlink.jpe [L]

    Where it says ?mysite\.com insert your own domain url.

    If you can find anything in your security logs (or by finding a site directly) – contact the abuse@ and inform them what site/s are STEALING your images and bandwidth. Be sure you can prove that you actually own the copyright to the images you claim are being used without your permission. If they are public domain you are out of luck.

    Thread Starter megahurt

    (@megahurt)

    Oh man… the plug-in works great. And oh the fun of choosing the image!

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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