Inline linking

The technology behind the World Wide Web, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), does not make any distinction of types of links—all links are functionally equal.

The ability to display content from one site within another is part of the original design of the Web's hypertext medium.

Some servers are programmed to use the HTTP referer header to detect hotlinking and return a condemnatory message, commonly in the same format, in place of the expected image or media clip.

[1][4] URL rewriting is often used (e.g., mod_rewrite with Apache HTTP Server) to reject or redirect attempted hotlinks to images and media to an alternative resource.

Other solutions usually combine URL rewriting with some custom complex server side scripting to allow hotlinking for a short time, or in more complex setups, to allow the hotlinking but return an alternative image with reduced quality and size and thus reduce the bandwidth load when requested from a remote server.

Thus, in Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc.,[6] the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit explained why inline linking did not violate US copyright law: Google does not...display a copy of full-size infringing photographic images for purposes of the Copyright Act when Google frames in-line linked images that appear on a user's computer screen.

However, such assistance raised only contributory liability issues and does not constitute direct infringement of the copyright owner's display rights.