I remember this trick many years ago was useful for bypassing download sites that otherwise obliged you to use their adware-filled "download manager" to get files or gave bonuses to such usrs (special user-agent). The words "User-Agent: MEGAUPLOAD 2.0" might bring back interesting memories for some here. ;-)
It's trivial to do this with a filtering proxy, which means it works in all browsers. On the other side, I've unknowingly embedded images from image hosting sites that didn't allow "hotlinking", only to be told by other users they couldn't see them, because of the referer headers (or lack thereof) my usual configuration sends.
IMHO things like this shouldn't be spread too widely... much like the fight between adblockers and anti-adblockers, it can only eventually lead to a more hostile computing environment.
It's trivial to do this with a filtering proxy, which means it works in all browsers. On the other side, I've unknowingly embedded images from image hosting sites that didn't allow "hotlinking", only to be told by other users they couldn't see them, because of the referer headers (or lack thereof) my usual configuration sends.
IMHO things like this shouldn't be spread too widely... much like the fight between adblockers and anti-adblockers, it can only eventually lead to a more hostile computing environment.