[nottorp]

> Linking to something directly so that you don't need to copy it to a new server and pollute the URL space with duplicate objects?

1. Only if bandwidth is free. Which is not the case if you're sufficiently popular.

2. It makes you responsible for other people's web sites working correctly. Would you personally like to have that burden? The original article's poster isn't too happy about it.

3. It's bad practice because if the original host does not care about other people's web sites working correctly, who knows what your viewers will download next time? Perhaps a new and improved version that includes a bitcoin miner? Ok that's out of fashion. Perhaps a 0day exploit then?

4. Even if no bitcoin miner or 0day exploit, you're allowing a 3rd party to interact with your viewer. This is a privacy risk if you hotlink from the likes of Google or Facebook isn't it?