Is hotlinking stealing? Does it infringe copyrights?

Of interest to some...
This blog has been accused of “stealing†by Mike Harding over at montaraventures.com, because a contributing editor “hotlinked†a picture on Harding’s site on this blog. The title of Harding’s piece is: Dvorak Steals Copyrighted Work. He further states that John had the “audacity to use my bandwidth in the commission of the theft.†Harding makes no argument in support of accusation of stealing and theft, so I’m sort of left in the dark.
I found this highly interesting.
This blog has been accused of “stealing†by Mike Harding over at montaraventures.com, because a contributing editor “hotlinked†a picture on Harding’s site on this blog. The title of Harding’s piece is: Dvorak Steals Copyrighted Work. He further states that John had the “audacity to use my bandwidth in the commission of the theft.†Harding makes no argument in support of accusation of stealing and theft, so I’m sort of left in the dark.
I found this highly interesting.