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[SodiumBenzoate]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3017...inspired-http-code-for-online-censorship.html

The web is full of cryptic status codes that your browser shows when it can’t connect to a website, such as 403 Forbidden or 404 Not Found. Now the Internet Engineering Steering Group is adding one more error code for your browser—but this time it will make it all too clear why you can’t see something.

The IESG recently approved status code 451 that tells visitors they can’t see the requested content due to “legal obstacles,” which usually means government censorship. Former Google engineer Tim Bray suggested code 451, inspired by Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, back in 2012.

http://boingboing.net/2015/12/21/ietf-approves-http-error-code.html

(error 451) is now an IETF standard and is the preferred error message for a server to send to a browser when content is blocked for legal reasons.

The proposal was approved by the IETF HTTP Working Group, after a long wrangle over both technical and philosophical reasons not to adopt it. But some servers implemented it anyway, and reported that it was a useful in practice.

I love the idea, inspiration, and implementation of this. Besides the fact that it doesn't actually accomplish anything.

 

[Sinfamy]

HTTP Error 451
Post not found

 

[SodiumBenzoate]

HTTP Error 451
Post not found

Thanks Obama

 

[GavinGT]

Former Google engineer Tim Bray suggested code 451, inspired by Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, back in 2012.

Well, that's something. An error code that references a story in which all books are outlawed.

 

[riotous]

I love the idea, inspiration, and implementation of this. Besides the fact that it doesn't actually accomplish anything.

It accomplishes clarifynig why a URL is no longer acessible; I could see such a stanard code being useful to search engines or anything designed to "consume the web at large."

Obviously to the general public it doesn't mean much but if you are a Google or say an RSS Reader app with caching and you've cached somethign that is returning a 404 you might keep the cache alive for a while; if you see a 451 you hide or delete the cache for legal reasons. It's not groundbreaking by any means and is partially being done to "send a message", but any and all clarity in error codes is a good thing in the world of connected systems.

 

[Sch1sm]

Number choice is ace, agreed. Love that book.

 

[Elfforkusu]

Previous viable options were 404 (Not found), 410 (Gone), or 403 (Forbidden). None really cover the censorship use case.

451 is a pretty strong statement, I love it.

 

[FO-totality]

Well, that's something. An error code that references a story in which all books are outlawed.

As an aside, there are some pretty funny joke code that have been suggested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OztMJ4EL1s&t=3m
https://github.com/joho/7xx-rfc

 

[littlerat]

What code will they use when they don't want you to know it's censored?

 

[Randomizer123454444]

What code will they use when they don't want you to know it's censored?

Government censorship has been heavily justified with "protect the people" (in Europe at least). They won't hide it. Even if they tried, it's pretty difficult to hide government-ordered website takedowns for example.

 

[KDR_11k]

Well, that's something. An error code that references a story in which all books are outlawed.

Though the author didn't intend for it to be against censorship but against newer media.

What code will they use when they don't want you to know it's censored?

The connection times out?