451 on the Internet: a new status appeared in HTTP for sites blocked by the authorities

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has approved a new HTTP status code : " 451 Unavailable for Legal Reasons ." It will be issued in response to requests to sites blocked by government requests related to political issues, copyright infringements, etc. The code received its number in honor of the famous science fiction Ray Bradbury's "451 degrees Fahrenheit."

The practice of blocking websites due to copyright infringements has become widespread in many countries around the world in the past few years. Public services require providers to restrict access to sites that are on the “black list”. The limitation method is left to the discretion of the providers.
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Naturally, each provider fulfills these prescriptions in its own way, and therefore the emergence of a new standard has emerged. Providers are not required to obey the decisions of the IETF, but the use of standards usually benefits the system.

There is a project 451unavailable.org , which aims to promote the use of the new HTTP status. Its founders recommend putting court decisions that served as a reason for blocking into public access so that the public is better informed about what is happening, and not just receive an incomprehensible message about the lack of access to “403 forbidden”.

As it is written on their website, “a truly correct error message 451 should inform the user how to deal with the blocking, how long it will last, where to find the corresponding documents and which service initiated it.”

To introduce a new status proposed in 2012, a programmer from Google Tim Bray. He participated in the development of XML and development environment for Android. He approved the appearance of the new status in the standard, but expressed concern that some services might not only want to block the site, but also hide the very reason for the blockage.

Recent history of 451, nicely done by @mnot : https://t.co/jeVvpcX8g6 Back-story: https://t.co/KvpUViK9Ah Thanks to all who helped!

- Tim Bray (@timbray) December 18, 2015

"451 degrees Fahrenheit" 451) is a science fiction anti-utopia novel by Ray Bradbury, published in 1953. It describes a society that relies on popular culture and consumer thinking. At the same time, books that make one think about life are to be burned; storing books is a crime; and people who are able to think critically are outlawed.

In fact, the paper ignites at about 450 ° C - the author, who consulted with the experts while writing the novel, confused the temperature scales.

The Internet Engineering Council is an open international community of designers, scientists, network operators and providers, created by IAB in 1986 and dedicated to the development of Internet protocols and architecture.