Well, at least it’s not useless garbage like the “I’m a teapot” HTTP status code 418.
IETF mulls adding geoblock info to 'Bradbury's code'
After a long campaign, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has decided that users deserve to know why pages were blocked and created HTML error 451. Now the body will consider a proposal to extend it to give users more information. “Error 451” entered the canon in December 2015, with the name honouring Ray Bradbury's “ …
COMMENTS
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Thursday 26th October 2017 16:31 GMT Arthur the cat
Well, at least it’s not useless garbage like the “I’m a teapot” HTTP status code 418.
I have an actual use for 418. Looking at my web server logs I used to see a lot of dodgy crawlers accessing the site by address with no SNI or the dotted quad as SNI. Rather than reply with a default site, I used to specifically 404 such requests, but the crawlers kept coming back. For a laugh I tried returning 418 instead (complete with error page with image of a teapot) and found that stopped most of them coming back. It may not be strictly correct, as there's no teapot present, but it works.
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Wednesday 25th October 2017 07:45 GMT Wolfclaw
Going to be a lot of pages from NK ...
451 - Resource Blocked
The glorious Democratic People's Republic of Korea has deemed this resource to be western propaganda and has the potential to corrupt the purity of the North Korean people.
Please enjoy this picture of of loved leader eating his Swiss cheese and lobbing missiles at the Japan.
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Wednesday 25th October 2017 11:47 GMT Martin Gregorie
Yes, a good movie: it introduced me to Dali's paintings. My only disappointment with it was not showing the Mechanical Hound, but with hindsight any attempt to do so would probably have failed.
The master stroke was that there was no text at all in the film apart from numbers. Even the credits were spoken.
If you haven't seen the film or read the book recently, do so: its still relevant and becoming more so.
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Wednesday 25th October 2017 09:51 GMT Charles 9
I think I can see where this is going. The main idea behind code 451 is to report that a resource is blocked for varying legal but legitimate reasons (example, a government resources website intended for its citizens would likely block international queries except for perhaps designated portals; at least here, they can cite a reason). There are legitimate reasons for blocking, and a 451 at least makes the resources explain why.
It won't do much good against oppressive regimes since they'll take the Nineteen Eighty-Four route and deny the resource even exists and enforce this unexistence, but if you're in that kind of environment, you have bigger problems already.
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Wednesday 25th October 2017 11:10 GMT Mage
Geoblock is evil and dishonest
IPs do not always indicate your location / country accurately.
In the EU, if the service is in the EU it's probably illegal.
Geoblock also DVD regions and BD regions are just greed. Either it's free and it should work anywhere, or you pay and it should work anywhere. Obviously Broadcast on satellite beams, cable networks and Terrestrial transmitters should be exempt.
HDCP on HDMI is a nasty tax and pirates pirate elsewhere.
TVs and setboxes that encrypt external HDD COMPLETELY even for FTA TV is evil. Hello Sony & Humax?
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Wednesday 25th October 2017 12:33 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Geoblock is evil and dishonest
Geoblocking drove me to piracy. I was happy buying dvds until my player broke. I had to find a multi-region player or lose most of my collection. Easy solution just download the films and cut out the crap. Files play everywhere. Best thing that ever happened. Keep shitting on paying customers.
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Wednesday 25th October 2017 15:32 GMT Jeffrey Nonken
Re: Geoblock is evil and dishonest
Should be easy enough to rip your DVDs. DVD drives allow up to 5 region changes before locking in. I tried to buy an obscure movie on DVD once that was only available in region 2, so I bought the DVD just for ripping and designated one of my older drives to be a region 2-only drive.
...Not saying it's not stupid. Just the opposite, in fact. There's no reason Short Time should be limited to UK distribution. Just suggesting an alternative to downloading. Or a supplement.
I also have Short Time on laserdisc. Now THERE is an obsolete format. I can't just buy a drive and rip it!
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Wednesday 25th October 2017 17:40 GMT Charles 9
Re: Geoblock is evil and dishonest
You know LaserDisc-encoded movies are just digitally-encoded analog composite video? In other words, not the best of quality in any event? If you want to rip a LaserDisc, you can do worse than hooking it up with good cables to a high-quality video capture rig. That's what the MAME team does right now to preserve LD-based games like Dragon's Lair.
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Wednesday 25th October 2017 17:42 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: DVD drives allow up to 5 region changes before locking in
"Excuse me if I do not agree to being locked out of content that I have legally paid for, on equipment that is legally mine."
You paid for the license to play that video. Any license has terms and conditions since, legally, the producers and/or publishers still hold final call (the copyright) over your material. Like it or not, that's the legal standing and if you want any different, you're going to have to talk to your legislature, understanding that the movie studios tend to have deep pockets and the threat to simply walk away. Which do you prefer: 10% of something or 100% of nothing?
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Thursday 26th October 2017 00:18 GMT Adam 1
Re: DVD drives allow up to 5 region changes before locking in
> You paid for the license to play that video. Any license has terms and conditions since, legally, the producers and/or publishers still hold final call (the copyright) over your material.
Ok cool. So what you're saying is that if my kids break a DVD by leaving it lying about, I can get a replacement media for my license at a nominal rate to cover the physical media and postage? Same for moving formats between VHS/DVD/Blu Ray (not remastering, just transfer at same quality)? Where do I sign?
/Rant over: apologies, but I can't stand arguing both sides of the street here. They claim it is a product when it suits them (repurchase when you break it or want it on Blu Ray) but a license when it suits them (transcode restrictions/geoblock).
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Thursday 26th October 2017 07:14 GMT Charles 9
Re: DVD drives allow up to 5 region changes before locking in
"Ok cool. So what you're saying is that if my kids break a DVD by leaving it lying about, I can get a replacement media for my license at a nominal rate to cover the physical media and postage? Same for moving formats between VHS/DVD/Blu Ray (not remastering, just transfer at same quality)? Where do I sign?"
Contact the publisher, and you probably need to send in the cracked disc.
I know this was possible with Nintendo cartridges in the past. Specified it in the manuals, usually on the back page with an order form (cost $10 back then IIRC, about $2 for a new sleeve, and so on).
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