I'd love to see a way to let users enter a URL in the image field and have the server fetch it and store locally before inserting. I can't seem to find any module that does this, and integration of this feature into IMCE would be ideal. It boggles my mind that this isn't a standard feature of image browsers. Why do users have to download external images to their hard drive first and then upload them with a file browser? Linking to external images is not always desirable.

Comments

-Anti-’s picture

-Anti- commented

> Why do users have to download external images to their hard drive first
> and then upload them with a file browser?

Because then the user is more clearly responsible in cases of uploading copyrighted material?

If the website itself automatically and indiscriminately leeched any file or image that a user directed it to, this would probably open the website owner up to lawsuits and compensation claims. Whereas if the user was forced to manually download and upload the material, then they alone are breaking the law and the ToS of the website?

Don't know for sure - just a thought.

illuminaut’s picture

illuminaut commented

While I don't think it makes a difference who uploads the image, let's leave the legal issues out of this for now.

I can achieve this functionality by using a custom input filter that looks for all external images, downloads them and replaces them with the local reference. While this works ok, it only works when used inside a field with filters, and it's not very flexible (it's all or nothing). It would be far better to handle this during the actual image selection, for example with a checkbox next to the url for storing the image locally.

-Anti-’s picture

-Anti- commented

> let's leave the legal issues out of this for now

Scraping material from websites and publishing them on your own server without the owner's permission *is* illegal. There is no doubt about that: I have a photographer acquaintance who says he obtains 15,000€ of his income per year through legal recuperation of stolen or misused material on commercial websites and in magazines.

If your users break your ToS (which should state that they are responsible for the material they submit) then they alone can be sued for damages, and you simply have to terminate their account and remove the material from your site/server.

However, if *you* used a script to scrape another site and publish the material without your user being in complete control of the action or even knowing about it, then obviously as site owner you are now culpable for the infraction.

The only aspect of all this which is questionable, is whether or not the illegality of it is the main reason why drupal file browsers and wysiwyg editors do not scrape material from other sites.

illuminaut’s picture

illuminaut commented

The reason I want to leave the legal discussion out of this isn't that I don't think it's a concern, but because it has nothing to do with the functionality itself. There are many use cases where this functionality would be beneficial and legal. In the end it's up to the site administrator to determine if there are legal implications. Finally, a feature like this wouldn't be a default setting anyway.

I very much doubt any of this is a reason why it isn't implemented in editors, so let's just focus on the functional aspects.

ufku’s picture

ufku commented
Status: Active » Closed (fixed)

Closing 6.x-1.x issues as this branch is no more supported.