Hotlinking.

Chances are, you've seen the word somewhere. You may have stumbled across an icon here on LJ you thought was pretty, and you saw the user say something along the lines of "DO NOT hotlink!" or "No Hotlinking or I'll kill you!" You didn't know what it was, so you carried on with taking the icon for yourself.
Guess what? There's a 90% chance that you just did what they told you not to do. That's one of the problems with hotlinking: if you don't know what it is, then you're probably doing it. In this tutorial, we will focus on two things:

1.) What is hotlinking and why is it such a big deal?
2.) How can I use icons without hotlinking?


So, first thing first. What is Hotlinking you ask?

Hotlinking is when you take the URL of an icon or other image you found on the internet and use it for yourself. Basically, you copy the original URL and paste it somewhere. Why is this so bad? Well, because it steals bandwidth. On photobucket, there is a limited amount of bandwidth available for every user. Everytime an original link is reused by someone else, more bandwidth is used up. And it leads to that beautiful icon you took turning into this:

Congradulations. This is what you have instead of that lovely icon. Not only have you lost the icon, but the original owner doesn't have it either. And they're the one that spent a lot of time making it nice and pretty for you. Doesn't feel very good, does it? Imagine how the original owner feels. They're not just ticked off. Most of the time, they want to hunt down the idiot responsible, shoot their kneecaps, and feed them to a pack of starving wolves. Thankfully, it turns out there is a way to use an icon found online without anyone having to be disembowled in the cold, lonely wilderness of Alaska.
How is it done? Well, let me show you. We'll use one of my own icons as an example.

Step 1. Shiney icon is spotted.


"Oh look! It's a pretty icon! The user did say we could have it as long as we credited them, right? Well, come on, let's get it!"

Step 2. NOT SO FAST.
Now now, hold your horses. Before we do anything else, we need to set up a photobucket account. If you already have one, open it up in another tab or window and proceed to Step 3. If not, PAY ATTENTION!

a.) Obviously, go to Photobucket .com
b.) Click the big green "Join Now" button on the front page.
c.) Follow the instructions.
d.) Once you're signed up, there will probably be an annoying advertisement. Scroll down and click "skip" to ignore it.
You now have a photobucket account! Hurray!

Step 3.
Right click the image and select properties.  A small window will open up.  In the window there will be a link.  Copy it.

Step 4.
This is where we separate hotlinking and honest image use.  Rather than running with the url straight to our userpic section or another website, we open our photobucket account.  In your album where it says "choose files" go to the side menu and select "Web URL".  The "choose files" box will change to say "upload images" and there will be three small boxes underneath.  Paste the code there and click the blue "Upload" button.  After the image is uploaded, click the option to return to your album and the icon will be there.  And now it has a brand new URL that belongs to you.  Place your mouse over the image and you'll see some more boxes appear underneath the icon.  It will look like this:



Click inside the box for "Direct link".  The url will be highlighted.  Right click and copy.

Step 5.
Go to your userpics section and paste the code, etc.  Once the image is added, go to the comment box and type in <lj user="USERNAME HERE">.  Replace USERNAME HERE with the user id of the person who made the icon.  This way you're giving credit to the person that made it.  Save settings.

And we're done!