I edited my .htaccess file sometime ago to put a stop to hotlinking. Every attempt to link to files on my webspace will end in a 403 Error message. You can't link directly to some directories too and images and zip files can't be downloaded from anywhere else than directly from my website.
That is exactly what is discussed in this thread in the HTML & Webscripting Forum and it is so easy to do.

Friederike

Every organisation rests upon a mountain of secrets ~ Julian Assange