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Yes, and from what I've gathered (IANAL), many fear that judges would not look kindly on things that do not specifically leak "gagged" information, but go again
by btown 11y ago
Yes, and from what I've gathered (IANAL), many fear that judges would not look kindly on things that do not specifically leak "gagged" information, but go against the spirit of gag orders (i.e. warrant canaries). The IETF's "permission" certainly doesn't supercede state or federal governments. So in practice this status code is cute, but it won't move the needle on reining in state censorship any more than before.
- pdkl95 11y agoExactly - judges generally don't look kindly at "technicalities"[1] and creative interpretations that are obviously created to work around a judicial order. Often, when legal issues are discussed on places like HN some people will jump at some obvious trick to bypass the order (such as using status code 451). There is a good chance that a judge will simply say you knew the gag order forbid you from telling anyone you have a gag order, sending code 451 explicitly tells people about the gag order, so enjoy your contempt of court penalties. The traditional warrant canaries are a genius work around as it relies upon the person potentially being gaged actively taking an action (it's a dead-man trigger). In theory, it's a lot harder to make someone lie and forge new warrant canaries as part of a gag order. Following the order and doing nothing sends the message. There is a time and place for challenging or evading legal requirements, but it's a dangerous game to play and only with good legal advice. [1] One exception might be legal technicalities where you can show precedent. It will probably still piss off the judge, but there is at least reasonable chance of such a technicality-based argument will work. As usual, YMMV, see a real lawyer.