Image Lifting Imposter Prank

Sometimes people like to use the images from my page. It doesn't bother me too much, I even do it myself from time to time, but I really don't like when people link the images directly from my site. This method not only means my image is being used, it also uses cockeyed.com bandwidth. It happens on discussion boards usually, someone will post one of the shaving cream photos or the drunk photo, or the padlock photo.

Information about this process appears in my web-log. I can tell how many times each image is viewed, and at what time. 

A webmaster can block access of his images from off-site by modifying the .htaccess file, but that would limit some of the other stuff I use this site for. 

Because they are linking directly to the image on my server, it allows some hi-jinks on my part. I can replace the image with another, more hilarious one! 

For instance, a few weeks back, a guy going by the name "Succinct" was sprinkling my aluminum foil hat picture all over a message board about the middle east. I tried to find his email address, but didn't have any luck, all I could find was a page full of awards he had won in the Air Force. I opted to swap the original image with this one:

Voila! Wherever the aluminum foil hat photo HAD been, the certificate of achievement began loading.

 

One guy at UCLA was loading 12 of my photos for a JavaScript project he was writing for a class.  I couldn't find his email address either, so I resorted to writing his professor.  Believe it or not, that worked.

The other night, I discovered a guy on ebay using one of my burning man photos on his ebay "about me" page. This guy, going by hazukiryu apparently thought I had an honest-looking face, perfect for peddling his pirate animated videos.

The caption, in particular, intrigued me, "Me on holiday, looking rough".

Immediately I decided to swap the image with something more spicy. Something homo-erotic that fit his caption. How difficult could it be to find something online fitting "on holiday", and "looking rough"?

Before I went through with it, I decided it would be more effective to change the photo in a much more subtle way. If the change was subtle enough,  hazukiryu himself might not notice it.

I decided to enlarge the photo to include a white field below the original image. This change gave me a canvas to add a little new information. I added text in the same color and font as his description.

This longer image pushed his text down.  I couldn't change that, so there is a weird duplication of some info. I'm hoping it stays there for a few weeks at least. Check out the page here, but please don't let the cat out of the bag!

I used his original "Whoa!" and "LONG LIVE EBAY" so the change would be less obvious.

Update!


Ok, hazukiryu figured it out, and changed the photo. First he tried copying it to a free geocities site, and linking the image from there, but Geocities doesn't let you link offsite, so he found another photo to link from. He also gave a nod to me, so we aren't ARCH-ENEMIES or anything.

 

 

I will keep an eye out for new image-lifting sites & change them for your amusement. I'd like to start with this one, but I'm not sure what it says (The scroll bar is on the left side).

Update!

On July 17th, armchairempire.com, the folks that hosted the shenmue-a image caught on and switched the photo on their server with a new one. I believe the "S" stands for "Shut".
Unfortunately, it only lasted a few days before he figured it out, replacing it with yet another image.

I wonder what will happen next?!

(also, someone translated the soccer page for me, thank you).

Another Update!

Poor Hyazukiryu moved on, and his ebay profile is gone now.

But here is another one!

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