Hotlinking means using an image that’s hosted on someone else’s server, not your own. It uses someone else’s bandwidth and can cause headaches if it becomes popular and accessed many many times. That’s not nice, and some webmasters can get really, really mad. Who can blame them? As a punishment to hotlinkers, some webmasters switch the images to things most inappropriate. For example:
This
Can become this
So think before you hotlink an image. Do it only when you are invited to do so. If not, you may risk having embarrassing images showing up on your web site, or be forever associated with them on a post somewhere in Cyber Space. Want more examples? See here, and here. A word of warning though, to REALLY embarrass hotlinkers, these webmasters used some adult contents. I don’t think it’s very, very bad. But don’t say that I didn’t warn you first. 
Marianne) I have to go practice some letting go to take care of that “ego” business.
