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Proposed a new HTTP status code for censorship.

Prehistory


Four days ago, Terence Eden pointed out that the existing HTTP codes do not match the wonderful new world in which we now live. The reason was the recent requirement for providers to censor access to The Pirate Bay: it’s not known what the server should return in response to a request from a banned document. During the discussion, Tim Bray from Google suggested introducing a new status code - 451 .

Why are existing codes not suitable?


The closest existing code is 403 Forbidden. However, if you look at the RFC , you can read about this code.
The server is understood to be the request.
However, in the case of censorship, especially when this requirement for providers to block access to the site, the server could not understand the request - it did not even receive it!

Another code exactly fits: 305 Use Proxy. Especially if you add it to the proxy link:
 305 Use Proxy
 Location: https://tpb.pirateparty.org.uk/

However, this use of this code may not like the censors.

Terence offered several options for the new code, including “112 Emergency. Censorship in action ”and“ 460 Blocked by Repressive Regime ”. Read more in the original post .
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Offer a new code 451


Tim Bray sent a formal proposal to the new code. The selected code is 451. An example of the answer is as follows:
 HTTP / 1.1 451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons
 Content-Type: text / html

 <html>
 <head>
 <title> Unavailable For Legal Reasons </ title>
 </ head>
 <body>
 <h1> Unavailable For Legal Reasons </ h1>
 <p> This request may not be serviced in the Roman Province of
 Judea due to Lex3515, the Legem Ne Subversionem Act of AUC755,
 which disallows access to resources hosted on servers deemed
 to be operated by the Judean Liberation Front. </ p>
 </ body>
 </ html>


Afterword


No matter how sad it is to add repressive code to HTTP, it seems that such code is becoming more and more necessary every day. The numerical index was not chosen, of course, by chance, and the reference to Ray Bradbury was completely conscious. We are getting closer to a dystopia based on a ban on free circulation of information. The correct response is not to ignore the changing world, but to soberly reflect changes in the network. An even better response would be the fight against these changes.

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/145699/

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