Bandwidth theft

4Nov/07

Bandwidth theft

Recently most of my bandwidth has been getting sucked up by bandwidth thieves deep-linking various pictures from this site.

I'm not sure why, but Google seems to like my images and places them high in its image search results. It might be because I actually write descriptive alt-text for them, when most people don't bother. For example, images from this site are in the first or second page of results for queries like starbursts, fork, elevator, and quarters. Multiple-word queries like eames chair bring in many others.

This 'success' has caused many people to rip off my images and link to them from their dim-witted MySpace or LiveJournal pages. For example:

Warning: as with most MySpace pages, your IQ may decrease if you click those links.

The majority of hits come from MySpace, but there's a large number that come from LiveJournal or random forums on the internet.

Back in the wild old days of Web 1.0, you could easily solve this problem by checking the referrer header and blocking the request or substituting the image for another one if it didn't come from your own site. Unfortunately, these days that won't work so well because it will break RSS reader apps, as well as RSS aggregators like Google Reader or Bloglines. Unfortunately there's too many of those to whitelist, and RSS readers like Outlook don't even really send a referrer header that you can filter on. I can't make a blacklist either, because there are way too many random forums on the internet to block, though blocking MySpace would take care of about half.

I'm trying to come up with a list of options. Here's what I have so far:

Stop writing descriptive alt-text for images - this may work, but it would block legitimate searches.
Block Google from crawling my images/ directory with a robots.txt file - same disadvantages as above.
Pull a Niall Kennedy on them and swap out the most commonly ripped-off images with Goatse. This has the schadenfreude-appeal of getting revenge on the thieves, but I'm not that much of a jerk (and judging by the designs of their MySpace pages, their lives must be bad enough already). It's also a lot of work on my end.
Do nothing and just pay the bandwidth bills. This is easiest, so that's probably what I will do for now. My monthly bandwidth usage isn't near the usage cap, so I'm not paying extra yet, but it's definitely increasing pretty good rate. I'll have to re-evaluate the situation in another year or so.

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Jason
November 5th, 2007 - 07:27

Wow…You were right about your IQ decreasing by clicking on those links…I’m afraid when push comes to shove (and you are paying extra for the excess bandwidth) options 1 and/or 2 will be the only way to reliably cut your bandwidth.

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Serena
November 5th, 2007 - 07:55

I vote for the being a jerk option! Why not? Except if it’s extra effort, you shouldn’t have to go there. But you shouldn’t have to pay for more bandwidth, either.

But…what if you put your images on flickr or something and link to those here? Would that help?

Sorry – as I’ve mentioned, I’m not computer savvy so I don’t have any good advice. But this seems pretty uncool.

p.s. I don’t understand the MySpace appeal. I have been nagged by people to start a page/communicate on theirs but I’m way too private…From the little I’ve seen on MySpace, seems like a mecca for people with limited taste yet unlimited time on their hands!

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Eric Faller
November 5th, 2007 - 10:16

That’s a good point about using a Flickr account – I could do that. But, then I would have to pay for a Flickr account. Nothing’s free
I also don’t totally understand the appeal of MySpace, but from my analysis there seem to be three reasons that people like it:
1. It provides a place for them to create a page on the internet that they feel like they own and can use to display their “creativity”. They like it because it’s really easy to do, and takes absolutely no skills at all (compared to setting up their own website or blog).
2. There’s the “social network” appeal, like Facebook. They can add a bunch of friends and appear to be popular. It makes it easy to communicate with old friends since you don’t have to keep track of ever-changing phone numbers, addresses, etc. There’s also the voyeuristic “stalker” appeal of looking at your friends’ profiles without them knowing it.
3. It’s basically a free online dating site. This is a big reason, I think. In terms of features, MySpace is basically just Match.com, except you don’t have to pay. I actually had a MySpace page briefly, and met a girl that I dated for a couple of months there. We had been sort-of introduced by one of my co-workers, but not really. MySpace was “low-key” enough that she was able to get up the nerve to send me a message through there and then we got to know each other. I was shocked that in that sense MySpace actually “worked”, despite how ugly and poorly-designed it is.

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Serena
November 5th, 2007 - 14:30

Hmm…I guess I’m not hip to any of those online services. Heck, I’m not even on Linkedin! Don’t get me wrong – I’m not paranoid or a hermit. Just more traditional. Not old fashioned or even conservative, but the Internet seems to be a place where the truth can be twisted and contorted into something nearly opposite. As useful as the Internet can be, I just wonder how “real” any of the information is that people put on those sites.

I’ve been out of high school for some time and had plans to go to a reunion. Right before, I heard a rumor about my personal life through the grapevine. I thought, no, no, I don’t need to see those people. It’s been years and they’re still IN high school. (And why the h*ll do they care about my personal biz anyway!?)And it wasn’t even based on anything anyone read about me on the Internet – just word of mouth! So, I just keep it to myself and the few very good friends I have. Snob? No, just pretty reserved.

However, I think it’s cool that you got to know someone through MySpace that you previously wouldn’t have known, though. I guess sometimes it works!

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Serena
November 5th, 2007 - 14:35

Oops…didn’t self edit enough – meant to say “whom you otherwise wouldn’t have known…”

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Eric Faller
November 5th, 2007 - 22:59

I know what you mean about some people still seeming like they’re in high school. Some people never grow up, and high school really was the “best time of their lives” (shudder), so they want to keep re-living it. That’s too bad that they spread rumors about you . You can’t let it get to you though, because that what they want. If they’re doing that kind of stuff, they’re the ones with the problems.
I had a similar situation last year at Christmas when some people were organizing a high school ‘reunion’ thing. I was going to go while I was at home visiting family, but when my flight was canceled due to bad weather, I wasn’t too broken up about it. Many of them didn’t seem to understand why I wasn’t clamoring to get another flight just to come see them. I didn’t really even care. High school seems like the center of the world when you’re in it, but only once you’re out in the real world can you see how utterly insignificant it is .

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Serena
November 6th, 2007 - 06:58

For sure…it didn’t even hurt my feelings. I was just more like, why are these people so lame that they are talking about me years later? I wasn’t that hot of a topic when we were IN high school, and the gossip wasn’t even that interesting! I decided not to go because those losers didn’t deserve to get to see me. That is an honor I reserve for those who are worthy.

So, I don’t blame you for not freaking out and trying to get to see your high school friends last holiday. I do hope you were able to catch another flight to see your family, though!

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