Yesterday, Cyber Patrol mouthpiece Janet Erikson said her company had blocked The Register because we "published information on their website providing details on how to hack into the software and render it ineffective".

Today, we learn that Cyber Patrol is also blocking us as a sex site, among "several categories", Novell tells us.

Likewise, corporate customers of Watchguard, who use this company's WebBlocker (another Cyber Patrol OEM) filters are also unable to read The Register.

Novell's product marketing managers are happy to make a submission to Cyber Patrol to have The Register unblocked. But they suggest we ask Cyber Patrol first.

Which is nice. But an entirely inadequate response. We are minded to ban all coverage of Novell, while it blocks us from our readers.

Restraint of Trade

The Register is conducting an ABCe audit in March. The purpose of this is to verify our internal statistics and keep our advertisers happy.

Half our readers are in the US, and a third work for large companies, the sort of firms which use filtering software to protect their employees from subversive material.

By blocking us from adult readers working in business, Cyber Patrol is restricting our ability to trade.

The filtering/blocking technology of choice for many corporates is supplied by Cyber Patrol, the lamebrain self-appointed censor of The Register, even though its owner, British-based Surfcontrol, says the firm's products is unsuitable for this purpose.

Surfcontrol bought Cyber Patrol last year and positions its subsidiary at the retail sector, targeting home and educational users. The company recommend that businesses should use Surfcontrol's SuperScout, a filtering technology which places us on its recommended list for computing and Internet sites. ®