Steemit, the company, may or may not allow or prohibit hot linking paid content, but that is debatable still on the variables on the definitions and in the facts that you cannot guarantee what is or is not paid on the Internet because YOUR FACEBOOK is PAID CONTENT TOO because Facebook makes billions of dollars each year off your Facebook and my Facebook and that means PAID and that is a lot of money and that is only one example.

Beyond that, Steem, the blockchain, does allow for anything and everything, including links to paid content, even if the Steemit company were not to, and that should be considered. Maybe Busy.org allows it and Steemit.com does not and there are others too that we can look at.