Example HTTP Response
HTTP/1.1 451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons
Link: <https://example.com/legal>; rel="blocked-by"- Government censorship
- DMCA takedown
- Court order blocking content
What does this mean?
The lawyers said no. Named after Fahrenheit 451, this page has been legally blocked. Big Brother is watching!
Technical Definition
The user agent requested a resource that cannot legally be provided.
RFC Says
"This status code indicates that the server is denying access to the resource as a consequence of a legal demand. The server in question might not be an origin server. This type of legal demand typically most directly affects the operations of ISPs and search engines."
Plain English:
451 means 'I can't show you this because of legal reasons.' Named after Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451', it's used when content is blocked due to legal requirements like DMCA takedowns, court orders, or government censorship. Include details about who made the legal demand if possible.
Common Misinterpretation
Don't use 451 for general access control or business logic restrictions - use 403 for that. Use 451 specifically when you're legally prohibited from serving the content. It's a transparency status code to distinguish legal censorship from technical or policy-based blocks.
Ready-to-use code for returning this HTTP status in your application:
// Express.js
app.get('/example', (req, res) => {
res.status(451).json({
error: 'Unavailable For Legal Reasons',
message: 'Your error message here'
});
});
// Native HTTP
const http = require('http');
http.createServer((req, res) => {
res.writeHead(451, { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' });
res.end(JSON.stringify({
error: 'Unavailable For Legal Reasons',
message: 'Your error message here'
}));
}).listen(3000);