Re: Reviving discussion on error code 451

+1. 403 would seem to cover it well. The specific reason for the 403 may
make for a moderately interesting discussion topic for someone but it's
still just a 403. Not as "cool" as 451, but it's suitable.
On Dec 31, 2014 6:00 AM, "Willy Tarreau" <w@1wt.eu> wrote:

> Hi Greg,
>
> On Wed, Dec 31, 2014 at 01:06:35PM +0100, Greg Wilkins wrote:
> > On 19 December 2014 at 15:07, <nicolas.mailhot@laposte.net> wrote:
> >
> > >  451 Forbidden by a third party human authority
> >
> >
> > The suggestion of various names for this code illustrate to me the
> > fundamental problem with 451.    Essentially this code is trying to add a
> > "why" or  "by whom" information to a 403 response and there are an
> infinite
> > number of such codes as there are an infinite number of situations that
> may
> > cause a forbidden response:
> >
> >    - Forbidden for legal reasons: content is illegal so better get a
> lawyer
> >    son, better make it a good one
> >    - Forbidden for legal reasons: order from a court in the server
> >    jurisdiction
> >    - Forbidden for legal reasons: order from a court in client
> jurisdiction
> >    - Forbidden for legal reasons: we got a threatening letter from a
> lawyer
> >    and just don't want to be involved.
> >    - Forbidden for legal reasons: we don't know if you are over 18 or
> not.
> >    - Forbidden for political reasons: the thought police will be visiting
> >    your house soon
> >    - Forbidden for commercial reasons: we'd really like to sell our
> >    services to somebody that does not want you to see this content
> >    - Forbidden by a policy you set: Ask your mother if you can see this
> >    content
> >
> > Fundamentally the content is forbidden and there are infinite shades of
> > grey between absolute legal prohibition and rather not serve it just in
> > case, plus there are extra dimensions of wont server it to you  and wont
> > server it to where you are.
> >
> > Perhaps there is some benefit to following Willy's suggestion of trying
> to
> > find 3 or so classifications of why something is being forbidden, but I'm
> > dubious that a clean and useful classifications exists.      Why not just
> > define a new response header that can carry extra information about the
> > reasons for a 403?   Such a header could encode detailed information
> > regarding if the reason is legal, policy and/or precautionary, if it
> > because of clients jurisdiction, the servers jurisdiction or the user
> > identity etc.
>
> I absolutely agree. And your examples above are the perfect illustration
> of this. After all, the reasons all start by "Forbidden" which is exactly
> 403. No need for an extra code here, let's just normalize a header field
> which will give the exact reasons.
>
> So that's a big +1 from me.
>
> Best regards,
> Willy
>
>
>