This week, the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) has defined and authorized a new HTTP status: HTTP 451.
This new error will be shown on websites blocked following legal reasons; this will be more explicit for these websites as until then blocked websites were showing the HTTP 403 – Access Denied error message.
When a website will shown the new HTTP 451 there should be (the IESG is encouraging authorities for that) an explanation on why the website has been censored.
For the story behind this new code, Tim Bray has proposed the 451 in reference of the famous Ray Bradbury’s book Fahrenheit 451.