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"451" Error Will Tell Users When Governments Are Blocking Websites

Posted by timothy on from the captain-beatty-approves dept.

Daniel_Stuckey writes "To fend off the chilling effects of heavy-handed internet restriction, the UK consumer rights organization Open Rights Group wants to create a new version of the '404 Page Not Found' error message, called '451 unavailable,' to specify that a webpage wasn't simply not there, it was ordered to be blocked for legal reasons."

5 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. This may work........ by allaunjsilverfox2 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Until they block the 451 page and redirect it to a 404.

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    1. Re:This may work........ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Maybe we can have a contest for the most creative 451 pages. Who knows, maybe they can display personal information about you derived from your IP address, your cookies and even turn on your computer's camera. Ahhh, good times when you know the government isn;t just blocking the site, it's spying on those who tried to access it.

    2. Re:This may work........ by Hatta · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Seems to me that issuing such an error code would already violate the gag order they routinely apply to these court orders.

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  2. Already exists? by mwn3d · · Score: 5, Interesting

    According to the Wikipedia article on HTTP status codes 451 already exists for exactly this reason. This doesn't seem new.

  3. Re:woosh by blackest_k · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I guess the average user probably wouldn't but who doesn't get the rather obvious reference to Fahrenheit 451 and the burning of books?

    I think its probably the perfect symbolism, and even if most people don't get it now they will learn.
           

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