ISFDB:Image linking permissions
The ISFDB displays images of cover art for publications, and images of authors. In both cases, the ISFDB stores a URL of an image hosted on anther site, and displays that image (hot-linking) during page generation. Currently (9 May 2008) the ISFDB does not host any such images itself, although it may do so in future.
The need for permission
Since such images are hosted by another site, that site will get a hit, and a request to serve the entire image each time that an ISFDB user views a page with an image URL being displayed. If the ISFDB uses many images from a given site, and those images are on relatively popular ISFDB pages, this might result in a significant amount of bandwidth for the host site. Since the images are displayed as part of an ISFDB page, no other content from the host site, and no advertisements it may include, are displayed. Some host sites are unwilling to permit this. In particular, Wikipedia, and other sites run by Wikipedia's parent, the WikiMedia Foundation, have a strong policy against such use of images hosted on their sites. They consider it "bandwidth theft" and will block all links from sites detected in such linking, according to their announced policies.
List of sites granting permission
- The following sites have granted permission (explicitly, or implicitly by virtue of their own terms of use) to the ISFDB to link to images that they host.
Sample request for permission
This is designed to be sent by email or as a physical letter. It is merely a suggested letter, volunteers are free to modify it in particular cases, or to use a completely different letter. But any communication requesting this permission ought to be careful to explain clearly just what permission we are asking for.
- I am a volunteer with the Internet Speculative Fiction Data Base (ISFDB) which is located at http://www.isfdb.org. The ISFDB displays information about the titles, authors, and publications of works of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and related works of speculative fiction. When we display information about a particular publication (an edition or printing of a particular work) we prefer to display an image of the cover of the work, so that the public can see exactly which edition is being described. We do this by including a URL of a publicly posted image in the database. When the publication page is displayed, using the image found at that URL as an image source for the page display. An example is http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?THLRDFTHRN1972 for an edition of The Lord of the Rings. We also link to images of authors in the same way. However, we only use URLs from sites that have agreed to permit us to do so.
- Your site <name of site>, located at <base URL>, has images that would enhance the ISFDB. We would greatly appreciate it if you would permit us to link to those images. The ISFDB is a completely non-profit, volunteer-run organization. We think that it does provide a valuable public service, and does help promote speculative fiction in general. Please let us know if we may display images from your site on our pages by linking to your site. Please copy your response to <official email address> so that the ISFDB as an organization can preserve a record of it.
- Thank you
- <signature of volunteer>