Code 451?
Greetings, dear readers! I read an article on PCWorld (source here) about a proposal penned by a Google dev that suggests a new HTTP status code for a webpage that’s been censored. (HTTP status codes you may know include “404 File not found” or “500 Internal server error”, one I’m sure you know if you write for Triond!) The suggested error code is none other than “451 Unavailable for legal reasons”, the number of the postulated error code being a tip of the digital hat to the late Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451, a 1953 book about a future where censorship is the norm. (451 degrees farenheit is the flashpoint temperature of paper, when books burn.) I like this idea, myself. More disclosure on chilling effects could not possibly be a bad thing.
June 21st, 2012 at 5:12 am
Thanks for reporting this. I guess the joke is that in the countries most likely to censor web pages, no one has been allowed to read or even hear of Bradbury’s book. This code won’t make the “closed internet” countries like North Korea and Iran happy. They’ll want some way off showing that a website has been approved. A peak at the official North Korean web page http://www (dot) korea-dpr (dot)com shows how bad things can be with total Internet censorship. .