[chrisfarms]

Is this saying:

"As a web user I want our ISPs/governments to give us a nice error page so we understand what is going on when they DNS block or seize websites"

Or is it saying:

"As a web-master, when have to take down content due to legal proceedings I want a nice HTTP code to return"

They give example of the first (Virgin Media), but that takes down an entire domain, so it's kind of irrelevant if the correct HTTP code is returned, it's not like that is going to be resolved quickly. 503 would be the correct code here.

The second might be useful to spiders (who might want to back-off spidering so often for a while), but then wouldn't you just want to show your users a 404 with a nice reason why the content has gone.

[nwh]

I understood it as the latter. Something that a webmaster can display to show a DMCA or geographical legal issue.

[marcosdumay]

It's good for both cases, isn't it? It's usefull for informing your users what is happenning.

> but then wouldn't you just want to show your users a 404 with a nice reason why the content has gone.

A 451 with a nice reason why the content was gone is better.