Add our policy on hot-linking images to the Terms of Service

[obulat]

Problem

We currently do not have any information on hot-linking the images in Openverse Terms of Service.

Description

For images, Openverse API provides two URLs: one is the thumbnail that we create using the photon service, and the other - the direct link to the image on provider's site. For audio, we use thumbnails directly (or do we use photon for them, too?).

should add information on hot-linking. I propose

We should update the terms of service with two points:

• hotlinking thumbnails is expected and fine, because the API serves references to them
• hotlinking the full images can be done at the discretion of each source, who may denylist or throttle them based on their own policies. @WordPress/openverse-maintainers, what do you think?

[obulat]

Here's a draft policy (made with ChatGPT):

4. Image Hot-linking Policy

4.1 Thumbnails: Hot-linking to thumbnails provided via our API (thumbnail field in media responses) is permitted and expected on your own service.

4.2 Full Images: Hot-linking to full images from the providers (url field in the media responses) is at each image source's discretion, who may apply their own policies including denylisting or throttling.

4.3 Changes: We may alter or revoke hot-linking rights at any time without notice. If revoked, you must promptly remove all relevant hot-links from your service.

4.4 Liabilities: You agree to indemnify us from any claims or costs linked to your use of API Thumbnails and full images.

4.5 Availability: API Thumbnails and full image availability is not guaranteed. We will not be liable for any interruption or discontinuation.

[sarayourfriend]

What does "hot linking" mean, exactly?

[sarayourfriend]

4.3 Changes: We may alter or revoke hot-linking rights at any time without notice. If revoked, you must promptly remove all relevant hot-links from your service.

I am not a lawyer, but it seems like we'd need to have some way of communicating this change in policy to relevant parties. Do we plan to email people when terms of service changes occur? In that case we should update our documentation to reflect that we will send automated messages for things like that. Right now we only say this about the email usage:

A valid email that we can reach you at if we have any questions about your use case or data consumption.

I don't think we can reasonably expect people to promptly stop usage of the thumbnails if we change the policy without letting anyone know.

4.4 Liabilities: You agree to indemnify us from any claims or costs linked to your use of API Thumbnails and full images.

I have no idea what this is meant to cover. Is this meant to prevent someone from suing us if our thumbnails stop working and their dependent service also stops working?

Why is "full images" covered in this? Is that meant to cover the fact that you can send parameters to our thumbnail service to retrieve the full image rather than a compressed version? That isn't part of the full images section before (which only mentions the provider URL). Do we need to make any claim of responsibility (i.e., that we claim none) with respect to full images if they're from the provider when we've already said that usage of those URLs is suspect to the providers policies?

Are the availability and liability sections redundant? Doesn't the liability section already cover this fact?