'451' Error Would Tell Users When Governments Are Blocking Websites

[Newsjock]

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/451-error-message-would-tell-users-when-governments-are-blocking-websites

... 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.

In case you missed the reference, the number is shout-out to Ray Bradbury’s book-burning government censorship novel Fahrenheit 451. The campaign's hope is to increase transparency and shine a light on web censorship—both intended and inadvertent. If the group gets its way, the 451 message would include information on who initiated the block, the reasons for it, links to the relevant court documents, and steps for how to go about challenging the block.

Though the campaign’s roots are in the UK, the new HTTP code would be available globally. (The idea for a new 451 status code isn’t a new one—Google developer Tim Bray first submitted a proposal for the new code to the Internet Engineering Task Force in June, and is reportedly happy to see the rights group picking up the effort.)