Google is immoral?

OK, I just have to comment on the notion, as reported via Techdirt, that linking to free, publicly available content on the web (italics just so you understand the context of the situation) is somehow immoral or a violation of copyright.

It's so incredibly simple: if you don't want others to access your content without paying, or if you are worried that they might steal your stuff from you, then don't friggin' put it out there without security (like a password and a credit card authorization). Believe me, if I was the least bit worried that someone would steal something from my web site, I wouldn't have put the stuff out there to begin with.

The only reason I rehosted a bunch of my images to Flickr was so I could see what traffic was really people visiting my site vs. people who were visiting others' sites (that were hotlinking to me). A few of my fractal images seem to be quite popular as backgrounds. All my images are still publicly available for download/hotlinking/viewing by anyone.

So, if you're worried about keeping your stuff protected, my advice to you is: don't hang it out there.