http://chat.lycos.de/logbook/ I have found several of mine and have seen several other rosity members work there plus a assortment of all the famous artists also. They not only are posting your images, but they are direct linking to your site for them so they are stealing your bandwidth too. The site is in german. I had a awful time signing up but I finally got it by using http://world.altavista.com/tr to translate the words. People like this make me sick! I also posted this at the copyright forum but wasnt sure how many people look there.

That's sick and disgusting and the ultimate lowest form of life, stealing other people's work. It all makes me so angry that I end up having to shoot at popcans to vent my anger. How dare they steal others work or link to it. This is why I won't post or share any of my work anywhere. Then I don't ever have to get so mad.

how do you know I can't seem to get around in there....Sharen

Looks like a chat site to me. Where is the 3D art?

And where did you find those pictures if I may inquire? This is a simple stupid chat-room, nothing more. If you ask me, this is just a trick to get people to give this page some hits - nothing more. If you really found any pictures in there, post a direct URL to this picture. The only thing I could find, were a lot of cheesy romantic pictures used by some chatters - that's all. I couldn't find "tons of renderosity" pictures. I tried about 50 different chatters and none of them had any renderosity-pictures in their files. Joerg

Joerg it is not a simple trick. So if you dont know what you are talking about dont go accusing me of trying to get hits to that page! This is a very serious thing. So far this person Knautschbaer3 is the one who is direct linking to my images the most. there are a few others too but i forgot to right them down. I have direct emailed this person from their profile to stop. You have to sign up to view the images. I got direct links to them from my web stats Here are some direct links from my web stats (you have to be a registered user to view these links) Yes I signed up because I wanted to know why this site was stealing my bandwidth. http://chat.lycos.de/logbook/Logbook/Logbook.asp?x=krasses%5Fbaby16&PID=263&MsgType=&MsgNick= http://chat.lycos.de/logbook/Logbook/Logbook.asp?x=BlonDienerin&PID=137&MsgType=&MsgNick= http://chat.lycos.de/logbook/Logbook/Logbook.asp?x=lisa%5Fschmidt&PID=687&MsgType=&MsgNick= I have also changed out the images of mine so far to the attached image. It dont stop the bandwidth theft however but it does show anyone viewing them that they are stolen.

Ano direct link http://chat.lycos.de/logbook/Logbook/Logbook.asp?x=mausi41199&t=31%2D10%2D2002+17%3A34%3A13

"If you really found any pictures in there, post a direct URL to this picture. The only thing I could find, were a lot of cheesy romantic pictures used by some chatters - that's all. I couldn't find "tons of renderosity" pictures. I tried about 50 different chatters and none of them had any renderosity-pictures in their files." Depends on if the chatters are online when you looked. Jen is right. They might be hotlinking to your images and you'd be better off protecting yourself than finding your bandwidth bill has gone sky high. to prevent hotlinking try some of these tips http://www.htmlbasix.com/disablehotlinking.shtml http://beta.ezboard.com/fcooltipsntricksfrm4.showMessage?topicID=335.topic or look up disable hotlink on any search engine chatrooms are a problem with this guys.. So don't be so sure that when someone directs you to a chatroom where people use images for avatars that your images aren't being used.

If you post to the Poser newsgroup, there's an NNTP provider who archive the images and animations long after they're off the USENET server (on their own servers,) and use them to advertise their service. I found this out by accident recently, very surprised to find one of my own (very crude and embarrassing) animations there long after it had disappeared from the newsgroup. I don't know if this is illegal or not, but the fact that they're using our stuff for advertising purposes angered me. I regret that I can't remember the name of the site right now, but I'm going to look for it and post more news to alt.binaries.3D.Poser when I find it. Jen, I really feel for you. It's terrible to be taken advantage of. Some people seem to think that if they find someting on the Web, they can do whatever they want with it, including making money.

xoconostle Use artistic material in advertising required the author permission and fee if any. Except in some legal cases when the advertising is done for the artistic material it-self. Cheers Guy

Puntomaus posted this link at ano site to stop hot linking to your files. I edited mine and now all that show up on the theft site is a red x http://wsabstract.com/howto/htaccess10.shtml Hope this helps anyone else that may have their images and bandwidth stolen.

I've just checked my Log Files and i found some Ref-Links from a Norwegian(?) Site that looks just the Same. http://chat.nettavisen.no/logbook/Logbook/Logbook.asp?x=peacmaker&l=1. I think that this Message isn't an Advertisement for a Chat Site. It's really about stealing Bandwith.

Oh, I am quite aware that I need to sign-up for this chat... I did so and I was unable to find those "tons" of pictures. Actually there seem to be only a few "stolen" images. IMHO some of those chatters are using the pictures without thinking much about stolen bandwith. Just change the picture URL or use some tricks to prevent those links. But your screaming blue murder because of such a small thing. If you are that concerned about bandwith, you shouldn't use an unprotected gallery at all - they always cause trouble with bandwith. Joerg

I pay for bandwidth and if someone causes me a bill for going past my allotment, I sure will scream blue murder. Saying we shouldn't use an unprotected gallery is like saying we should just accept theft and such inconsiderate behavior as the norm. Sorry, I'm not willing to. If someone can't act like an adult they need to learn how. If that means people not standing for this and beating it into their heads, they deserve no less.

Sure... keep screaming all you like - it won't help a bit, because it is impossible to get any legal handhold on these people. Get to grips with reality. Either you use a protected gallery or people will link to your pictures. If you have to pay for bandwith, you really should think about protecting yourself. And I would like to see how you "will teach them to behave like adults". Face it: There is no way to get your rights on the net - international law isn't really working at the moment. So keep screaming, but it won't help. A little java-script on the other hand will help a lot. Joerg

I don't think Java script will help. It's more the HTaccsess thing that can stop direct linking, but I don't know how it works.

if you want to protect your gallery java can help...unix users have the best protection against this...the sites actually throw you into an endless loop i guess you could call it...when a visiter right clicks on the site at all, first time warns them...second, another warning, and thirdly, they get into this loop...wont let them do anything...they must pull the plug to even shut it down...if you dont know how to do this...simply ask someone to help or read up on it...im really sorry this happened to you. i just spent 20 mins signing up just to see...terrible...but the only way to stop it is by protecting yourself.---fusion---

You can use a java-script to launch a window with the picture. This way the "thief" could use the thumbnail as a target, but not the final picture, since he doesn't know its true location. Simply drop the pictures into another folder. You could use a second java-script to protect your page from right-clicking. There is a lot of things you can do to prevent people from using your bandwidth. Most of the people doing this are not even aware, that they are doing something wrong. They simply enter some URL and that's all. Keep them from getting that URL and they won't have a chance to steal your bandwidth. This will help a lot more than threatening with legal consequences, that everyone knows will never work out. Joerg

If you can talk to your systems admin, ask them if there's an htaccess script you can call in the cgi-bin folder. Then you place a small htaccess call file in any folder you want to keep people from linking off-site. The file has the allowed referrer (your server) and the file extensions you allow the referrer to load. All other (disallowed) referrers are blocked from loading any files. Javascripts are useful until the thieves locate the path to the files they want in unprotected folders with no htaccess call.

Elsia, thank you for the clarification. That would mean, then, that the News provider I'd come across is indeed using our images improperly for their advertising. I'll advise the newsgroup as soon as I can find that News ISP again.

Elsia, thank you for the clarification. That would mean, then, that the News provider I'd come across is indeed using our images improperly for their advertising. I'll advise the newsgroup as soon as I can find that News ISP again.

Joerg: IMHO, it is impossible to protect something on a webs site by JavaScript. In case someone has "disabled" the right mouse click, you simply can look at the source code (unter "Ansicht -> Quellcode" :) and copy the path of the picture. Some servers are not protected from getting a directory listing even! But the method with the .htacess-file works, as I can tell you. I loaded one up to my root directory - and voilno more picture rapture (ok, you still can grab the pics when on the site, but not from a single link to the pic only). Willy

My heart goes out to any whose works are being stolen. I don't know all the ins and outs of this kind of stuff but the following may be helpful...
http://www.vortex-webdesign.com/help/copy.htm
http://www.vortex-webdesign.com/help/hidesource.htm

I know, but only a few of us have this option of using htaccess. My provider does not allow the use of such scripts - well I also have no bandwidth limit. If my provider thinks this appropriate, so be it. If I had a bandwidth-limit, I would use htaccess. Java-scripts do keep those who have no idea about html or java-script from getting to your files. But CGI-Scripts are admittedly better. Joerg

Jen, the code that sends a broken image to thwart the hotlink looks interesting, but what about those of us who have freestuff or marketplace items? Last I checked my log, Renderosity is the top site that hits the images we load in the free/market area. So how do we use this code to let osity pass through and stop others?

Some observations from someone who actually deals with these issues for a living: Client-side scripting is futile because it can be disabled. Server-side scripting is the only solution and so far I haven't seen more than two flavors of it for Apache servers: 1. Protected .htaccess image directories as mentioned above. It's clean, it's simple, it works. If you have thumbnails for Renderosity downloads, don't put them in a protected directory. 2. Linking IMGs to CGIs such as Perl scripts which take an ID argument in the URL, look the ID up in a table where a given ID corresponds to a given filename, then feed the image data to your browser directly, but check the IP address of the document/browser making the request before serving the image data. [In other words, the same IP checking mechanism as .htaccess.] RBMA, a content manager for online newspapers, protects The Family Circus in this fashion -- King Features Syndicate can show the cartoons on their site, but regular shmoes who hotlink to the same URL will have an alternate warning image served to the browser instead. #2 is most useful to people who: a) aren't using Apache servers (e.g. NT boxes), b) haven't been given permission to use .htaccess directives or c) need a highly customizable solution for multiple exceptions to IP blocking rules. #1 has the advantage that other than relocating your images to another directory, it's about as low-maintenance as it gets.

From what I can tell of the .htaccess method, you can specify in the code what URLs are allowed access to the images. Add the appropriate URL for r'osity and you should be set. No?

I once had someone link to an entire site design. I trashed the look of their site to make my point and it came down quickly. I don't accept this behavior from anyone as 'the norm'.

CSSabotage. Cool. Lemme guess: someone hotlinked to your stylesheet. If you have screenshots I'd love to see them (in a less OT location, of course).

All I did was change the graphics and re-upload them. The ideas were endless. It was a guy's personal site, I could have uploaded fairies and flowers and changed his title graphic to something about PMS Relief.... but I didn't. :)
He actually laughed at it.