An Open Letter To Cracked.com :: The Life of the Traegorn

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An Open Letter To Cracked.com
Posted Jan 13, 2012 - 11:14:14

Dear Cracked.com Staff,

You have a pretty big website, and while I am not a regular reader, I've enjoyed reading articles posted there from time to time. There's one particular list you've posted though which has me a bit angry, so I think it's time that I said something about it.

About a year ago, the article 5 Vampires That Could Beat Up Edward Cullen went up. Now, I hate Twilight as much as the next person with a modicum of taste, and the content of the list didn't bother me that much (although it wasn't exactly your site's most inspired moment). What bothered me is your use of this image of Orlok from Nosferatu.

Now this image is fully in the public domain. I don't claim any copyright on it, and would never presume as such. But where my issue lies isn't that you grabbed the image from my site, no. It's that rather than upload the image to your own server, you (a large website) decided to merely hotlink it from my site.

That's right, Cracked.com, which has its own CDN, steals every image on that article from another source.

Most are photo hosting services or blogspot, so those people wouldn't notice anything -- but my site is a personal one, and I pay for that bandwidth myself. When a writer is too lazy to right click, save-as, and reupload an image like that... well, it's just sort of dickish.

So, since I know people still read said article, I will now offer this ultimatum (that I assume will never be read -- but hey, I can pretend to be important for a minute): If you do not stop stealing my bandwidth by the end of the month, I will replace said image with something... less pleasant to look at.

I don't know what I'm going to do, probably nothing pornographic... probably... but something you, the staff of Cracked.com, won't want displayed on one of your webpages for certain.

Sincerely,
Trae Dorn
Proprietor of TRHOnline.com
- Traegorn

I'm guessing you've e-mailed them directly?

Also, DO IT DO IT DO IT.

About a year after I made my Christmas video: Rudolph, they did almost the same story for a countdown, I'm not surprised.

Pher - If they're going to steal my bandwidth, I can only assume they're closely monitoring my site.

If they're not, it's their own fault when a 8000pixel wide image of me licking a phaser goes up

I say, find a pic of Bubba Lum. Or send them a bill. Either way.

See, I was thinking that the picture of Duct Tape Boy in front of the Hindenburg would be hilarious.

Duct Tape Boy in a bikini works for me

I'm frankly shocked and dismayed that ANYONE still hotlinks these days what with the ready availability of hosting sites (both the free and paid kind).

And yes you need to do something to screw with them. A site that large should never hotlink...EVER.