I'm no lawyer, but from an end user's perspective if you hotlinked an unauthorized image instead of linking to a page containing the image, then you aren't just "pointing" to the image anymore, you're practically displaying the image on your website.
The content you have merely contains a link to the provided resource. The user can fetch your page without violating the law, the user can also legally fetch the image from the owner. So neither you nor your user have committed a crime.
You could try to argue that the user requires a license to combine the 2 in ways not considered by you however this has several problems.
- Its laughably unenforceable
- In the us it would probably be fair use
- It would make literally the entire internet illegal
- It would make adblocking on your end illegal
- It would make you a world wide source of negativity and scorn.
Basically there is a technical solution to most hotlinking issues and every imaginable legal solution would be a cure worse than the disease.
