But I thought we're not allowed to just copy & paste on this board. I once read so in the Forum rules, I think.
Or has that changed recently? 
Chuck!!!!!!! I need your advice!
I'm not a tech expert, so I'm going to try to explain this, and hope I do it correctly.
Bandwidth is the capacity of a wired or wireless network communications link to transmit the maximum amount of data from one point to another over a computer network or internet connection in a given amount of time -- usually one second. Synonymous with capacity, bandwidth describes the data transfer rate. Bandwidth is not a measure of network speed -- a common misconception.
While bandwidth is traditionally expressed in bits per second (bps), modern network links have greater capacity, which is typically measured in millions of bits per second (megabits per second, or Mbps) or billions of bits per second (gigabits per second, or Gbps).
Bandwidth is what helps websites such as this one, or bigger ones like Google, move/upload at a certain speed.
If you do a google search and you find images, what should be done is those images should be saved to your computer, and then uploaded to a photo-hosting site like Photobucket or Flickr. You would then copy the url from that site, and post the image here.
Let's say I have a website about Madonna (Super Madonna Heaven), and I have uploaded a ton of Madonna pics there. Those pics turn up in image searches and they bring people to my site. The pics would have addresses like
www. smh1. com,
www. smh2. com,
www. smh3. com, and so on. If people start copying the image address, and posting them somewhere else, it affects my bandwidth. Each time those images are posted to other sites, when they open, they are still connected to my website, and this can cause my website to slow down its performance time, meaning pages will open slower, pictures will open slower, things like that.
So let's say "Super Madonna Heaven" currently has 2,000 users, and they are all on the site. If people copied and pasted my pictures to 100 other sites, technically not only are my 2,000 members using my site, all of the users of those other sites are using information from my site, which is slowing down the speed of which my site operates.
Copying the image address, and posting it to another website is called hotlinking. Hotlinking affects the bandwidth of other websites, which the owners of those sites are paying for, so when you hotlink you are stealing bandwidth from another website, which they are paying for.
Perfect example......You all know that I post images from I Heart Jake in the Eyelashes thread. I spoke to the owner of I Heart Jake, and she graciously gave me permission to copy her images from there, so we can enjoy them here. Her one stipulation was that any images I share here are uploaded to my own hosting service (either photobucket or Flickr). I do that, and then direct members to her site by stating they are from I Heart Jake.
