"451" Error Will Tell Users When Governments Are Blocking Websites 255
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."
It would be an error code (Score:1, Insightful)
Not a page, you moron.
Re:woosh (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe you don't get it. It's not a solution, it's a protest.
Re:woosh (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not the government in many of these cases that's doing the actual blocking, it's ISPs where the people that have to install the filters are your typical slashdotter.
Re:I get the reference but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, living in a country, that's sufficiently oppressive to ban you from reaching any Internet-site it is your pleasure to visit, is a client's screw-up.
Re:woosh (Score:5, Insightful)
They don't get it. The people who block your content in-line can send you back any page they choose, including a 404.
Of course they can. The idea is that those doing the blocking have been forced to do so, and thus can use this alternate error page to distinguish these cases, and show their users how much of the internet they're missing due to government intervention.
A standard 404 could be legitimate, and isn't going to help garner any group support for open-ness.
Re:woosh (Score:5, Insightful)
By way of example, Youtube obviously complies with DMCA takedowns; because it would be ruinously risky not to; but they (sometimes to the displeasure of the takedown-demander) always note 'Video X has been removed because of a complaint from FooCorp Media'.
Unless a company is an enthusiastic partner in the censorship scheme, it isn't in their interest for their customers to think that they've fucked up or are deeply unreliable when they are acting on a legal demand.
Re:Reference to... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It would be an error code (Score:1, Insightful)
You can supply custom error pages for specific errors... moron.
Re:I get the reference but... (Score:0, Insightful)
451 F is the temperature that paper burns at.
There is a (book and) film with the same name with the same name dealing with censorship.
Re:woosh (Score:4, Insightful)
Just because they're legally required to block the content, doesn't mean they agree with the block or want to do it. On the contrary, it would be more in the ISP's interest to show that they're being legally pushed to block the content rather than the content just appearing not to work.
It's not the government in many of these cases that's doing the actual blocking, it's ISPs where the people that have to install the filters are your typical slashdotter.
Except when they receive a National Security Letter they are not allowed to tell and doing so can result in your life being ruined by the government.
Re:I get the reference but... (Score:5, Insightful)
4xx means the client screwed up.
Only if by "screwed up" you mean "requested something that couldn't be delivered". 4xx is also used for things like "Payment required" and "Forbidden". The four hundred range is exactly right for this type of code. Asking for something you are not allowed to have is, in a very technical sense, a client error.
Re:actually, not so much (Score:4, Insightful)
It was more than that. It was the books being replaced by the people own volition. The people allowed it, let it happen, and even condoned it. Which one could argued it exactly what is happening.
Re:Amendment... (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, they're still watching. They just (hopefully) can't decrypt it.
Re:I get the reference but... (Score:4, Insightful)
client screwed up
...at the ballot box.
Re:People don't know they have sinned? (Score:1, Insightful)
Some seem's
Re:Error 832 (Score:1, Insightful)
hehman mrman thatman ughman