Archive notice: This article was originally published on February 1, 2016. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Everyone who has ever searched the internet for something that does not exist knows Error 404. Now the large family of HTTP status codes has a new member: copyright and censorship code 451, used to mark content whose display is to be prevented for legal reasons.
This is interesting from an internet-policy perspective. Anyone who sees this status code knows immediately that the content they sought is not being displayed because of copyright or legal restrictions, or censorship. That can make users wonder what could be so explosive about the content that is no longer available. 451 will probably also be seen very often on video services in future.
The number sequence 451 is by no means random. It is an allusion to Ray Bradbury’s novel “Fahrenheit 451”. In the story, books are forbidden. Censorship squads track them down and burn them. 451 is supposedly the temperature at which paper spontaneously ignites. That is not true and was simply poorly researched by the author. Never mind, an allusion is an allusion.
Anyone who wants to know exactly can read more about the new HTTP status code here: datatracker.ietf.org
