HTTP 451 – Unavailable For Legal Reasons
The resource is unavailable due to a legal demand, such as government-mandated censorship.
Common use case
Used by sites complying with court orders, DMCA takedowns, or government-mandated blocking to explicitly signal that content was removed for legal reasons rather than a technical fault.
Example
HTTP/1.1 451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons
<html><body>This content is not available in your region</body></html>History
Standardised in RFC 7725 (2015), after years of informal use.
Did you know?
The code number is a deliberate reference to Ray Bradbury's novel "Fahrenheit 451", about a future where books are banned and burned.