@tommythejoat - Could you refer to the mod you are talking about. I am sure that would help those that do not really understand this issue or know what to use.
I was talking about the subject of this thread, which I think is the IMG tool's behavior of defaulting to uploading the url image rather than just putting it between IMG tags.
The default behavior is really just quick insertion of an uploaded attachment.
If you have threads available on your site that are years old and only used as a research base, you are vulnerable to someone modifying the target of your image reference to something else you would not want to see on your site.
Since you make a reference to the foreign site whenever the image is displayed, it is possible that the reference could be corrupted in such a way as to damage your site.
The default behavior is, in my opinion, the correct behavior. If you always make local references, you are always in control of what is displayed.
As Cellarius says, if the actual image is displayed on your site you need to have a chain of authority to use it. If the image does not appear, but is only linked then you do not need any usage authorization. In some cases the rule now seems to be that you can also use a thumbnail in the link if it is not sufficient quality to infringe on the copyright of the original.
The fact that there are tons of flagrant violations does not change the law, which is international in scope.
The mod we are using for the purpose of importing ALL external image references is this one that runs in the background as a cron job and stores them locally with a local reference. https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...mport+external