The web is built on hot linking hypermedia. It is more fragile obviously, but it distributes the bandwidth and storage load. If nobody hotlinked, then small forum admins/Lemmy admins/etc. have considerably more cost to bear.
If the server owner isn't fine with others hottlinking they can simply deny requests not related to there website(s). On that note, I hope you are donating to your instance, otherwise by your logic you are stealing there resources.
I hope you are donating to your instance, otherwise by your logic you are stealing there resources.
How is that my logic? Admins of my instance are fine with people using their instance without donation so there is nothing unethical here. If people must pay to use their instance then it can't be called "donation", it's called "payment".
If the server owner isn’t fine with others hottlinking they can simply deny requests
Can I use same logic to say if you are not fine with people robbing your home, you must lock your door?
Admins of my instance are fine with people using their instance
Fair enough, it appears they are completely happy for you to use up a small piece of there resources
If you can't be bothered to spend 5 minutes to put up the magical "do not use my resources" message (origin: Same-site) in your site's headers, then I think people would believe that using up a portion of your bandwidth is fine and act accordingly.