The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) has approved the use of a special HTTP error code for websites that have been taken down by order of a local government, by court order, due to copyright or other legal reasons.
The initiative to create a special server for censored content came from Tim Bray, one of the co-creators of XML. Mr. Bray submitted a draft for a new error code to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) HTTP Working Group in August 2013, whose leadership, the IESG, approved it yesterday.
The error code number, 451, comes from Ray Bradbury's book " Fahrenheit 451," a novel that describes a dystopian future where authorities have burned books to prevent and suppress any opposing ideas. 451 is also the temperature, on the Fahrenheit scale, at which paper ignites.
“Initially, I and some others held back. […] While 451 qualified for new status codes (as it could potentially apply to all resources), there was no obvious way for machines to use it,” said Mark Nottingham, chair of the IETF HTTP Working Group and member of the W3C TAG, describing some of the initial drawbacks of adopting the 451 error
What made the IETF and IESG change their minds was the early and experimental release of the status code as it was, in its early stages. The large number of websites showing the 451 error convinced the IESG that this code was needed.
Currently, error code 451 is only approved and it will be some time before it reaches the application level as an RFC.
The downside of the whole situation is that governments, just as they can force owners to take down a website, can also ban the use of the 451 code, so they can hide what they are doing.
