Replacing a jpg with a swf ?

People are pulling an image from my site to use in ebay, blogs and similar
postings. I don't mind too much - it is not a problem at all. Could I
make a server re-direct from image.jpg to image.swf and send out an image
that would incorporate a clickable link back to me ? I have no idea about
flash or how to create a clickable flash image file from the jpg or if the
idea would work....

Best regards, Eric.

Eric Johnston wrote:

People are pulling an image from my site to use in ebay, blogs and similar
postings. I don't mind too much - it is not a problem at all. Could I
make a server re-direct from image.jpg to image.swf and send out an image
that would incorporate a clickable link back to me ? I have no idea about
flash or how to create a clickable flash image file from the jpg or if the
idea would work....

Hi Eric,

Yep - mod_rewrite should be able to do this. (g for hotlinking)


Something like:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?example.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ http://www.example.com/get-them-back.swf [R,L]


And in 'get-them-back.swf' you create the clickable link back to your site.

If you are not able to create *.swf files, look at http://www.swishzone.com/
for a cost effective solution. You can easily create hyperlinks in that.

__/ [Tony] on Wednesday 16 November 2005 21:46 \__

Eric Johnston wrote:

People are pulling an image from my site to use in ebay, blogs and similar
postings. I don't mind too much - it is not a problem at all. Could I
make a server re-direct from image.jpg to image.swf and send out an image
that would incorporate a clickable link back to me ? I have no idea about
flash or how to create a clickable flash image file from the jpg or if the
idea would work....


Hi Eric,

Yep - mod_rewrite should be able to do this. (g for hotlinking)


Something like:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?example.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ http://www.example.com/get-them-back.swf [R,L]


And in 'get-them-back.swf' you create the clickable link back to your site.

If you are not able to create *.swf files, look at
http://www.swishzone.com/ for a cost effective solution. You can easily
create hyperlinks in that.

Sorry about my ignorance, but how will

<img src="http://example.org/image.jpg" />

get rendered if converted to

<img src="http://example.org/image.swf" />

for example?

Needn't there be <object> for Flash to be handled? I am curious as I never
knew such options existed. I worked with Flash in the past, but never
thought crawlers (at the time) bothered to interpret it. I also didn't
realise that one object type could be replace with another...

Roy

"Roy Schestowitz" <newsgroups (AT) schestowitz (DOT) com> wrote

__/ [Tony] on Wednesday 16 November 2005 21:46 \__

Eric Johnston wrote:

People are pulling an image from my site to use in ebay, blogs and
similar
postings. I don't mind too much - it is not a problem at all. Could I
make a server re-direct from image.jpg to image.swf and send out an
image
that would incorporate a clickable link back to me ? I have no idea
about
flash or how to create a clickable flash image file from the jpg or if
the
idea would work....


Hi Eric,

Yep - mod_rewrite should be able to do this. (g for hotlinking)


Something like:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?example.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ http://www.example.com/get-them-back.swf [R,L]


And in 'get-them-back.swf' you create the clickable link back to your
site.

If you are not able to create *.swf files, look at
http://www.swishzone.com/ for a cost effective solution. You can easily
create hyperlinks in that.

Sorry about my ignorance, but how will

img src="http://example.org/image.jpg" /

get rendered if converted to

img src="http://example.org/image.swf" /

for example?

Needn't there be <object> for Flash to be handled? I am curious as I never
knew such options existed. I worked with Flash in the past, but never
thought crawlers (at the time) bothered to interpret it. I also didn't
realise that one object type could be replace with another...

Roy

I am now more doubtful that the flash idea can be made to work. The lack of
an <object> may stop the browser processing the swf flash image. Maybe I
could send out image.gif instead of image.jpg and using an animated gif I
could then get a visual text advert displayed briefly every 15 seconds.
Eric.

__/ [Eric Johnston] on Thursday 17 November 2005 09:12 \__

"Roy Schestowitz" <newsgroups (AT) schestowitz (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:dlgrv8$fr$1 (AT) godfrey (DOT) mcc.ac.uk...
__/ [Tony] on Wednesday 16 November 2005 21:46 \__

Eric Johnston wrote:

People are pulling an image from my site to use in ebay, blogs and
similar
postings. I don't mind too much - it is not a problem at all. Could I
make a server re-direct from image.jpg to image.swf and send out an
image
that would incorporate a clickable link back to me ? I have no idea
about
flash or how to create a clickable flash image file from the jpg or if
the
idea would work....

[ ...]

Sorry about my ignorance, but how will

img src="http://example.org/image.jpg" /

get rendered if converted to

img src="http://example.org/image.swf" /

[...]

I am now more doubtful that the flash idea can be made to work. The lack
of
an <object> may stop the browser processing the swf flash image. Maybe I
could send out image.gif instead of image.jpg and using an animated gif I
could then get a visual text advert displayed briefly every 15 seconds.
Eric.

Depending on how *briefly* (e.g. 7.5 seconds would need 3 frames), you
might have to incorporate many layers, in which case file size will in-
flate enormously. If it's a JPEG that is HotLinked, you will possibly lose
quality too. Either way, the GIMP can do all of this and there is place
for re-use.

Roy

Roy Schestowitz wrote:

__/ [Tony] on Wednesday 16 November 2005 21:46 \__


Eric Johnston wrote:


People are pulling an image from my site to use in ebay, blogs and similar
postings. I don't mind too much - it is not a problem at all. Could I
make a server re-direct from image.jpg to image.swf and send out an image
that would incorporate a clickable link back to me ? I have no idea about
flash or how to create a clickable flash image file from the jpg or if the
idea would work....


Hi Eric,

Yep - mod_rewrite should be able to do this. (g for hotlinking)


Something like:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?example.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ http://www.example.com/get-them-back.swf [R,L]


And in 'get-them-back.swf' you create the clickable link back to your site.

If you are not able to create *.swf files, look at
http://www.swishzone.com/ for a cost effective solution. You can easily
create hyperlinks in that.


Sorry about my ignorance, but how will

img src="http://example.org/image.jpg" /

get rendered if converted to

img src="http://example.org/image.swf" /

for example?

Never tried putting this together before, so didn't / don't have an
example. Sounds doable to me though in one shape or form.


Onwards to a possible solution then.


Replace original image1.jpg with a static image1.swf

Then:
http://www.phpclasses.org/browse/package/1904.html

<quote>
However, mod_rewrite can be used to protect the service of Flash files
against hotlinking because these are embedded in pages using the
<object> tag and in this case the browsers do not send a referer when
requesting the Flash file from the origin server.

This class provides an alternative solution that works by generating a
access key that is used to compose the URL used in the object tag but it
is only valid only during a limited period of time.

The class takes as options the location of server directory where is the
file to be protected, a password and the limit of time during which the
access key is valid.

When the class validates the access key, it serves the real Flash file
if the key is valid, or serves an error Flash file otherwise.
</quote>

__/ [Tony] on Thursday 17 November 2005 22:16 \__

Roy Schestowitz wrote:
__/ [Tony] on Wednesday 16 November 2005 21:46 \__


Eric Johnston wrote:


People are pulling an image from my site to use in ebay, blogs and
similar
postings. I don't mind too much - it is not a problem at all. Could I
make a server re-direct from image.jpg to image.swf and send out an
image
that would incorporate a clickable link back to me ? I have no idea
about flash or how to create a clickable flash image file from the jpg or
if the idea would work....


Hi Eric,

Yep - mod_rewrite should be able to do this. (g for hotlinking)


Something like:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?example.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ http://www.example.com/get-them-back.swf [R,L]


And in 'get-them-back.swf' you create the clickable link back to your
site.

If you are not able to create *.swf files, look at
http://www.swishzone.com/ for a cost effective solution. You can easily
create hyperlinks in that.


Sorry about my ignorance, but how will

img src="http://example.org/image.jpg" /

get rendered if converted to

img src="http://example.org/image.swf" /

for example?



Never tried putting this together before, so didn't / don't have an
example. Sounds doable to me though in one shape or form.


Onwards to a possible solution then.


Replace original image1.jpg with a static image1.swf

I don't believe that the browser will render it though. Don't forget that
most browsers will protect the users from oddities and MIME types are an
issue as well. Also see:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/dirigibles/75781.html
(Flash HotLinking)

"...I redirected everything coming from Fuddruckers.com (the HotLinking
criminal)... Wrote a nice little message pointing out how incredibly stupid
their web developer is. And then redirected the main page to a pleasant
little website showing photographs of slaughterhouses. And also opened up
some more popups, for those that don?t have popup blockers."

Then:
http://www.phpclasses.org/browse/package/1904.html

quote
However, mod_rewrite can be used to protect the service of Flash files
against hotlinking because these are embedded in pages using the
object> tag and in this case the browsers do not send a referer when
requesting the Flash file from the origin server.

This class provides an alternative solution that works by generating a
access key that is used to compose the URL used in the object tag but it
is only valid only during a limited period of time.

The class takes as options the location of server directory where is the
file to be protected, a password and the limit of time during which the
access key is valid.

When the class validates the access key, it serves the real Flash file
if the key is valid, or serves an error Flash file otherwise.
/quote

I think that the OP would be best off binding Web addresses as watermarks to
all images. This can easily be done in batch mode ( e.g.
http://tinyurl.com/793lh ) and although there is no link-back, the domain
name might at least gets tattooed in people's minds.

Roy

--
Roy S. Schestowitz
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