Exactly - judges generally don&#x27;t look kindly at &quot;technicalities&quot;[1] and creative interpretations that are obviously created to work around a judicial order.<p>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.<p>The traditional warrant canaries are a genius work around as it relies upon the person potentially being gaged actively taking an action (it&#x27;s a dead-man trigger). In theory, it&#x27;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.<p>There is a time and place for challenging or evading legal requirements, but it&#x27;s a dangerous game to play and only with good legal advice.<p>[1] One exception might be <i>legal</i> 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.