Everyone these days is so polite.

OK, that was a bit of an exaggeration. But back in my day the web had a whole site high-bandwidth site specifically for educating careless webmasters about the dangers of hotlinking: g o a t s e . c x.

It was used to great effect on things like auction sites where the original page html was not allowed to be changed after listing.

I'm not sure if politeness is the motivator. Imagine if you had done that, for all hotlinks to your script. Then, it turns out a children's website is hotlinking your script.

Some idiot at Company X decides that it's actually your fault, since its your script that did it. To save face, they get an expensive lawyer to sue you. Next thing you know, you're a registered sex offender.

Well that escalated quickly.

> To save face, they get an expensive lawyer to sue you. Next thing you know, you're a registered sex offender.

Please learn the difference between civil and criminal law.

Back in the 90's it wouldn't be unthinkable for someone to be criminally prosecuted for a goatse-ing a minor in Snookelatchee County, Kentucky.

Please learn the difference between hyperbole and literal statements.

That was exactly what I had in mind when I wrote that.

I once hotlinked an image posted on a forum, and they served the same link you provided.

I never did a hotlink again.

There was a post on reddit to a site that had hotlinked an image for it's background who suddenly found itself with a pornographic background.

The banner has even a close button, so it will not stay on top forever. It's extremely polite.