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> This is apparently the New Yorker refusing to serve a page (with a 404!) to the UK. So they (or a UK distributor or subsidiary I suppose?) have been given legal advice that it would breach a court order banning media coverage

I really doubt the legal advice was to give a fake 404.

Why not instead give the usual honest "not available in your country"?

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I didn't suggest that the 404 was government advice. I imagine the advice was that they should not publish it in a way that UK readers can see it.

I do think that it should be an honest response (at least a 403).

The appropriate status is surely 451 (Unavailable For Legal Reasons)[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_451

Surely not until is adopted. It is currently only proposed.

Well then they can be the first! That's how the internet got made.

Actually that's how the internet gets broken.

Better to await a standard rather than breach one.

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