As designed Image proxy prohibits null referrer

[Jawsh]

If I open an image on my image proxy through Google, I get the broken image icon.
If I refresh, it stays broken.
If I use the URL directly to open the page, I get my image.

I have no qualms with hot linking because I can bleed bandwidth and would like an option to disable this feature if it is intentional.

 

[Mike]

Your title seems to be different than your body. By "null referrer", I assume you mean "no referrer". The opening directly situation is the one with no referrer, which is allowed.

We do block the request when the referrer is from an external domain. This is indeed intentional. If you'd like to see this changed, I'd recommend posting a suggestion about it. (It should be doable in an add-on.)