[Typo3] copies to uploads/media

[Olaf Menkens]

Hi,

after uploading media files (pdf, doc, mov, etc.) to some directory 
under fileadmin, I noticed, that each reference to these files (using a 
filelink) create a copy of the files in the uploads/media/ directory. I 
personally think, this is quite annoying, as
 - it seems to waste disk space
 - it oftenly changes the filenames (adding some _01 to it), which some 
customers perceive diturbing
 - it complicates maintenance: after updating a media file I have to 
recreate all references to it
 - after deleting (web) pages, these copies are not cleaned 
automatically, I have to use the extension kb_cleanfiles for that.

Could someone please tell me the advantages of this copying mechanism ?
Is there an easy way to change this behaviour of filelinks ? But I'd 
like to keep the advantages of filelinks (size, preview image, easy of 
use), so I don't want to use direct links from RTE or something like that.

I've looked through the mailing list archives, but didn't find an answer 
yet, although the question arises sometimes (e.g. from Eric Blome, 
11-06-2005). On the german mailing list I've seen some vague hint, that 
it is planned to make this behaviour configurable, but this was a long 
time ago and there were no precise hints on how this will be done.

Thanks for any hints,
Olaf.