In #ezpublish irc (freenode.net) Bratt shared his solution to use a copy of an ezpublish website from production on a local dev without the var directory images (this is a kernel hack atm but could be transformed into a kernel override)

gistfile1.php

--- kernel/classes/datatypes/ezimage/ezimagealiashandler.php	2014-07-17 11:18:00.000000000 +0200
+++ kernel/classes/datatypes/ezimage/ezimagealiashandler.php	2014-07-17 11:51:57.000000000 +0200
@@ -551,6 +551,10 @@
         }
         $this->setOriginalAttributeData( $originalData );
 
+        $ini = eZINI::instance( 'image.ini' );
+        $imagesRemoteUrl = $ini->variable( 'ImageConverterSettings', 'ImagesRemoteURL' );
+        $imagesRemoteUrl = rtrim( $imagesRemoteUrl, '/' ) . '/';
+
         $aliasEntry['name'] = 'original';
         $aliasEntry['width'] = $imageNode->getAttribute( 'width' );
         $aliasEntry['height'] = $imageNode->getAttribute( 'height' );
@@ -562,7 +566,7 @@
         $aliasEntry['alternative_text'] = $alternativeText;
         $aliasEntry['text'] = $displayText;
         $aliasEntry['original_filename'] = $originalFilename;
-        $aliasEntry['url'] = $imageNode->getAttribute( 'url' );
+        $aliasEntry['url'] = $imagesRemoteUrl . $imageNode->getAttribute( 'url' );
         $aliasEntry['alias_key'] = $imageNode->getAttribute( 'alias_key' );
         $aliasEntry['timestamp'] = $imageNode->getAttribute( 'timestamp' );
         $aliasEntry['full_path'] = $aliasEntry['url'];
@@ -610,7 +614,7 @@
                 $aliasEntry['alias_key'] = $imageVariation->getAttribute( 'alias_key' );
                 $aliasEntry['timestamp'] = $imageVariation->getAttribute( 'timestamp' );
                 $aliasEntry['is_valid'] = $imageVariation->getAttribute( 'is_valid' );
-                $aliasEntry['url'] = $imageVariation->getAttribute( 'url' );
+                $aliasEntry['url'] = $imagesRemoteUrl . $imageVariation->getAttribute( 'url' );
                 $aliasEntry['basename'] = $basename;
                 $aliasEntry['alternative_text'] = $alternativeText;
                 $aliasEntry['text'] = $displayText;
--- lib/ezimage/classes/ezimagemanager.php	2014-07-17 11:30:50.000000000 +0200
+++ lib/ezimage/classes/ezimagemanager.php	2014-07-17 11:30:57.000000000 +0200
@@ -250,6 +250,7 @@
     */
     function isImageAliasValid( $alias )
     {
+        return true;
         $aliasName = $alias['name'];
         if ( isset( $this->AliasList[$aliasName] ) )
         {
@@ -783,6 +784,7 @@
      */
     function createImageAlias( $aliasName, &$existingAliasList, $parameters = array() )
     {
+        return true;
         $fname = "createImageAlias( $aliasName )";
 
         // check for $aliasName validity