Why John C. Dvorak got busted for “hotlinking”

Vallywag: Why John C. Dvorak got busted for “hotlinking”

“PC Magazine columnist John C. Dvorak’s blog proudly displays an image labeled as “used without permission.” Is Dvorak bragging about the copyright violation? Nope. He’s just pulled a boneheaded move known in the blogging world as “hotlinking,” and the altered image shows that he got caught at it.

There are a number of unwritten rules to blogging. One of the more common — and more grievous — violations is “hotlinking.” This is when a blogger uses HTML code to display an image hosted on someone else’s website. Though you haven’t copied the image, some lawyers say displaying the image on another Web page could still be considered using the image without permission. More annoyingly, the image loads directly from the original server, using their bandwidth, not yours.

Now, in the age of cheap bandwidth and free picture hosting, this isn’t as big a deal as it used to be, but it is a bit of a slap in the face to the person whose image is used In a post about reform of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, one of Dvorak’s editors hotlinked an image from a post by Mike Harding of Montara Energy ventures.

One way to rectify the situation is to email the hotlinker and ask him to stop. However, some people like to take this one step further. Because the photo is being loaded directly from the victim’s site, they can easily change the image to something else, generally something offensive and Not Safe For Work ^TM as a punishment. Luckily for Dvorak though, as you can see above, Mike Harding merely put a notice in the image that it was being stolen.

Since then, however, Dvorak’s post has changed the image so that it is now being hosted locally, but without any apology or explanation for their screwup. As Harding says in his post on the matter to Dvorak: “You’re in the biz, you know better than this.”

My favorite hotlinking story involves John McCain’s MySpace page. Some intern in the McCain campaign took, without attribution, the MySpace profile design of Newsvine’s Mike Davidson, including a hotlinked image from Davidson’s account. Davidson replaced the image and suddenly McCain proclaimed his support for gay marriage, “particularly … between passionate females.” Sweet!”

Prank May Have Led to Shock Treatments

The Associated Press: Prank May Have Led to Shock Treatments  

 ”State officials are investigating complaints that at least two teenagers were given electric shock treatments at a residential center for people with special needs because someone telephoned fake orders to the staff.

Initial investigations showed that a former student at the Judge Rotenberg Education Center called in the orders on Aug. 26, Cindy Campbell, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Early Education and Care, said Monday. Center officials reported the incident the following day, she said.

“There is still an ongoing criminal investigation,” said the school’s senior counsel, Ernest Corrigan. “We are working very closely with investigators.”

The state’s Disabled Persons Protection Committee is investigating a complaint that a third resident of the center — an adult — also received unnecessary shock treatments after the call, said Nancy Alterio, the committee’s executive director.

The complaints have been referred to the state police and the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office, Alterio said.

The school treats people with a wide variety of behavior problems, including autistic-like students who have aggressive, self-injurious or destructive behaviors and high-functioning students with psychiatric or emotional problems, according to a description on its Web site.

The Department of Early Education and Care said the call allegedly came from someone claiming to be on the staff of Dr. Matthew Israel, the psychologist who founded the school.

Campbell said the school has submitted a corrective action plan that her agency is reviewing.

The center is believed to be the only school in the nation that uses two-second skin-shock punishments to change destructive behavior. The center said Monday the treatments are used in a minority of cases as part of overall therapy for “very deeply emotionally disturbed young adults.”

The procedures are applied “only after obtaining prior parental, medical, psychiatric, human rights, peer review and individual approval from a Massachusetts Probate Court,” Corrigan said.

The center has survived two attempts by the state to close it over allegations that its unorthodox methods amount to abuse.”

A-1 Brickoven Pizza

Today me and some of the guy’s in the shop ordered a Pizza from A-1 Brickoven Pizza in Vernon, CT.

The Pizza arrived on time and hot. The Pizza was fantastic. We have over the past few years ordered Pizza from A-1 several dozens of times. We are never disapointed.

Today we ordered a large Pizza with pepperoni and cheese. The Pizza is a thin crust with just the right amount of sauce and cheese.

One of the things I like about A-1 is when you order a Pizza they send you paper plates and napkins. I know it does not sound like a big deal however, when you work in a shop it does make a big difference. The way most company’s are trying to control costs by reducing supplies its nice to see a small local company that still believes in giving its customer a good value.