Internet DRAFT - draft-sahib-451-new-protocol-elements

draft-sahib-451-new-protocol-elements







Network Working Group                                           S. Sahib
Internet-Draft                                           August 01, 2018
Intended status: Informational
Expires: February 2, 2019


             New protocol elements for HTTP Status Code 451
                draft-sahib-451-new-protocol-elements-03

Abstract

   This document recommends additional protocol elements to Hypertext
   Transfer Protocol (HTTP) status code 451 (defined by RFC7725).

   Discussion of this document was conducted on the Human Rights
   Protocol Considerations Research Group mailing list
   https://www.irtf.org/mailman/listinfo/hrpc [1], briefly on the
   HTTPBIS Working Group mailing list ietf-http-wg@w3.org [2] and on
   https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/statuscode451 [3].

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
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   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on February 2, 2019.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2018 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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   (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must



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   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  New Protocol Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     2.1.  Blocking Authority  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     2.2.  Geographical Scope of Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   6.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     6.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     6.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     6.3.  URIs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4

1.  Introduction

   [RFC7725] was standardized by the IETF in February 2016.  It defined
   HTTP status code 451 - to be used when "a server operator has
   received a legal demand to deny access to a resource or to a set of
   resources".

   This document attempts to outline protocol recommendations that would
   help make the status code more useful to users.

2.  New Protocol Elements

2.1.  Blocking Authority

   An HTTP response with status code 451 should include a "Link" HTTP
   header field [RFC8288] which has a "rel" parameter whose value is
   "blocking-authority", in addition to the "blocked-by" header
   specified in [RFC7725].  It's important to distinguish between the
   implementer of the block, and the authority that mandated the block
   in the first place [ERRATA_ID-5181].  This is because these two
   organizations might not be the same - a government (the blocking
   authority) could force an Internet Service Provider (the implementer
   of the block) to deny access to a certain resource.  Both provide
   essential information about the legal block.








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2.2.  Geographical Scope of Block

   HTTP status code 451 is increasingly being used to deny access to
   resources based on geographical location.  The response should
   contain a provisional header named "geo-scope-block" that specifies
   the countries in which a resource is blocked.  This scope should
   correspond to a comma-separated list of alpha-2 country codes defined
   in [ISO.3166-1].  The rationale for keeping the geographical scope to
   country-level granularity is that most blocks are mandated by
   national governments [IMPL_REPORT], [AUTOMATTIC_COUNTRY_BLOCK_LIST].

3.  Security Considerations

   This document does not add additional security considerations to
   [RFC7725].

4.  IANA Considerations

   The Link Relation Type Registry should be updated with the following
   entry:

   -  Relation Name: blocking-authority

   -  Description: Identifies the authority that has issued the block.

   -  Reference: this document

   In addition, IANA should be updated with the following provisional
   header:

   -  Header field name: geo-scope-block

   -  Applicable protocol: http

   -  Status: provisional

   -  Specification document(s): this document

Acknowledgements

   Thanks to Alp Toker, Niels ten Oever, Stephane Bortzmeyer, Corinne
   Cath, Christine Runnegar, and many others on the HRPC mailing list
   (linked above) for reviewing and brainstorming.








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6.  References

6.1.  Normative References

   [ERRATA_ID-5181]
              Bortzmeyer, S., "[Technical Errata Reported] RFC7725
              (5181)", 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/errata/eid5181>.

   [ISO.3166-1]
              International Organization for Standardization, "Codes for
              the representation of names of countries and their
              subdivisions - Part 1: Country code", ISO Standard 3166-
              1:1997 , 1997.

   [RFC7725]  Bray, T., "An HTTP Status Code to Report Legal Obstacles",
              RFC 7725, DOI 10.17487/RFC7725, February 2016,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7725>.

   [RFC8288]  Nottingham, M., "Web Linking", RFC 8288,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8288, October 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8288>.

6.2.  Informative References

   [AUTOMATTIC_COUNTRY_BLOCK_LIST]
              "Automattic - Country Block List", 2018,
              <https://transparency.automattic.com/country-block-list/>.

   [IMPL_REPORT]
              Abraham, S., Canales, MP., Hall, J., Khrustaleva, O., ten
              Oever, N., Runnegar, C., and S. Sahib, "Implementation
              Report for HTTP Status Code 451", 2017,
              <https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-451-imp-report-00>.

6.3.  URIs

   [1] https://www.irtf.org/mailman/listinfo/hrpc

   [2] mailto:ietf-http-wg@w3.org

   [3] https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/statuscode451

Author's Address

   Shivan Kaul Sahib

   EMail: shivankaulsahib@gmail.com



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