Mac Community Feedback

What is Bandwidth Theft?
Every time you load a page you are using bandwidth. For instance, if the page has a graphic that is 25KB you are drawing 25KB of bandwidth from the server it is stored on. If the total size of the html code, background, and other graphics totaled 185KB, you would be drawing 185KB of bandwidth from the server. If you copy a picture from another group or any site on the Internet, and paste directly to your group, message board, or anywhere else on the Internet, it is called bandwidth theft and the site you took it from is charged back for your use of it. This has nothing to do with copyright, but is very upsetting to the original owner of the information or picture since many Web Hosting Services charge for bandwidth use. While many sites allow you to use their graphics, they expect you to download them to your computer and then upload them into your own server space (like a photo album in your Group)

Consequences
MSN Groups does not worry about bandwidth theft from one group to another because you have no vested interest in the bandwidth (i.e. you do not pay for bandwidth or have a limitation on the amount of bandwidth you can use, therefore you cannot claim theft of something that is not yours and you have no vested interest in). However, out on the net many sites have limitations and/or pay for their bandwidth and your use of it may cause them to pay extra of have their web pages disabled for awhile because they have exceeded the limit, i.e. Geocities. MSN will act on complaints of bandwidth theft made against your Group by owners of websites outside of MSN Groups. A Group found in violation of this policy will be shuttered (closed to members) pending further investigation. If the Group is found to indeed have taken part, knowingly or not, in bandwidth theft, the Group will be shut down immediately and permanently. ALL POSTS THAT VIOLATE THIS POLICY WILL BE DELETED IMMEDIATELY AND THE AUTHOR GIVEN A WARNING. The second offense will result in the violator being banned from our site. This is a necessary defense in order to keep Mac Community Feedback within the MSN Code of Conduct and to keep our site from being closed by MSN.

How Can I Avoid It?
Simple: You should download/save these pictures to your computer and upload them into a photo album in your group. Once the graphic is in your album, then add the images to posts or to pages. In a nutshell, if the information is accessed off of another website, it is bandwidth theft. If the information comes from your hard drive or another group you belong to then it is not bandwidth theft. This does not protect you against copyright violations, which are another story all together.