[pmwiki-users] Protect uploaded files from direct access?

[Neil Herber (nospam)]

On 2007-06-05 Ian MacGregor is rumoured to have said:
> If you decide to go the .htaccess route, I may be able to help.
> I use a .htaccess file in my document root to protect .jpg, .png, .gif 
> and .bmp files from being directly linked. Here's the contents of 
> the .htaccess file:
> 
> # -- Begin protection --
> RewriteEngine on
> RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://imacgregor.com/.*$      [NC]
> RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://imacgregor.com$      [NC]
> RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.imacgregor.com/.*$      [NC]
> RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.imacgregor.com$      [NC]
> RewriteRule .*\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|bmp)$ http://www.google.com [R,NC]
> # -- End protection --
> 
> As you can see, directly linking to (or typing in a browser) a file such as: 
> http://imacgregor.com/uploads/Gallery/crystal-tux-lt.png will redirect you to 
> www.google.com.
> 

Since it looks like you are trying to defeat "leeches" who grab your 
images directly, is it really fair to offload them onto a third party ? 
Admittedly, Google has loads of bandwidth, but a better solution might 
be to redirect to a single image file on your site that contains a 
message such as "To see this image go to imacgregor.com!". Then you 
won't be leeching off Google. ;-)

-- 
Neil Herber
Corporate info at http://www.eton.ca/