How to Prevent Hotlinking in WordPress

Nothing is worse than someone stealing your images or bandwidth, but this happens fairly regularly as everything is out in the open on the internet for people to easily link to. This can cost you money and is even illegal if the person is linking to stock photos in which you had to acquire a license to use. Today we’ll explain what hotlinking is, why it is bad, and how you can prevent hotlinking on your WordPress website. What Is Hotlinking?
The concept of hotlinking is very simple. You find an image on the internet somewhere and use the URL of the image directly on your site. This image will be displayed on your website but it will be served from the original location. This is very convenient for the hotlinker but it’s actually theft as it is using the hotlinked site’s resources. It’s like if we were to get in our car and drive away with gas we siphoned off from our neighbor’s car.
Below are a couple things to be aware of when it comes to hotlinking:
1. Hotlinking Costs the Original Website Owner Money
Someone linking to your images from their website might not seem like a big deal, but it could generate a lot of extra costs for you. The Oatmeal is a great
Source: https://managewp.org/articles/15110/how-to-prevent-hotlinking-in-wordpress

source https://williechiu40.wordpress.com/2017/05/11/how-to-prevent-hotlinking-in-wordpress/