Patent Application
20070130329
Text messages sent from one computer to another computer, and which pass through one or more computer networks or the Internet are commonly known as “e-mail” messages. As a form of communication, e-mail has both advantages and disadvantages. Its main attractions include its low cost and its relatively high transmission speed. An e-mail message can be sent to someone in another hemisphere as quickly and for the same cost as an e-mail message sent to someone across the street. A problem with e-mail, however, is the ease by which an e-mail message can be re-published or redistributed by the recipient. When e-mail messages are used to transmit copyrighted attachments, the re-transmission of such material can give rise to unauthorized distribution and copying.
It's well known that most e-mail programs are able to create and read e-mail messages such that when a message reaches its intended recipient or when it's read by its intended recipient, a return receipt message is sent from the message addressee to the message originator, notifying the originator that the message reached and/or was read by the addressee. While such return receipts provide an indication that the original message reached its intended addressee, they do not inform an e-mail message originator when an e-mail message has been forwarded by an original addressee to someone else. A method and/or apparatus for text messaging whereby a message originator would receive a notification when his or her message is forwarded by an addressee would be an improvement over the prior art in that such a capability would enable an e-mail message originator to know the extent to which a blind notification of forward message should be sent whenever the message is forwarded or retransmitted to someone other than the original addressee.
In one embodiment, there is provided a method for notifying an e-mail message originator of an e-mail message's re-transmission by a first addressee to a second addressee. The method comprises the steps of formatting an e-mail message to include a forwarded message data field, which marks or identifies an e-mail message as requiring a notice message to be sent back to the message originator whenever the message is re-transmitted. A second field in the message identifies the originator's e-mail address to which a notification can be sent, notifying the originator that the message was forwarded to a second addressee.
In another embodiment, there is provided a computer that is coupled to a network interface, through which the computer can send and receive e-mail messages. The computer is also coupled to media that store computer program instructions, which when they are executed, they cause the computer to format an e-mail message to have at least one data field in the e-mail message header that indicates to a computer that receives the message, that a notification should be sent back to the computer from which the message originated. The computer program instructions also cause the computer to format an e-mail message to have at one other data field in the message that identifies the computer to which the notification message should be sent.
Features of exemplary implementations of the invention will become apparent from the description, the claims, and the accompanying drawings in which:
Turning to
Message field 12 identifies the person or addressee to which the message is to be routed. Fields 14 and 16 identify addressees to which copies and blind copies are to be sent. Message field 18 identifies the e-mail address of the person who sent the message whereas message field 20 identifies the e-mail address of the person who created the message. Message field 22 contains the identity of each transfer agents (i.e., a switch or computer) that routed the message from the sender (identified in field 20) to the recipients (identified in fields 12, 14 and 16). Message field 22 can therefore grow or increase size as the message passes through a network and through successive transfer agents.
Message field 24 is a specification of transfer agents, i.e., computers or switches, through which a path can be traversed back to the sender, who is identified in the message field 18. Message fields 24-36 identify a message id, whether the message is a reply to an earlier message, keywords and a subject line of the message. Actual message text follows the header 10.
Turning now to
The message header 100 of
As used herein the term “blind notification of forward message” is considered to be an e-mail message sent back to a message originator by either a computer that forwarded the header 100 and its attached message, or a computer that received the header 100 and its attached message.
In most instances, the contents of the X-From-Author field will contain the same address as that which is in field 20, however, in an alternate embodiment, the presence of the forwarded message notification data field 40 in the header 100 can be used as a signal to a mail program that a blind notification of forward message should be sent to the address contained in field 20, which is shown in
An illustrative depiction of how the message header 100 enables the blind notification of e-mail forwarding is in
In
If the addressee 48 of the message 46 forwards the first message 46 to a second addressee 52, as shown by the directed arrow labeled 46 +50-1, the preferred embodiment of the invention causes a blind notification of forward message 50-2 to be transmitted back to the originator 44, which notifies the originator that his first message 46 was sent on to a second addressee by the first addressee 48. The blind notification of forward message 50-2 is routed through the network 43 as any other e-mail message would be.
When the second addressee 52 receives the forwarded copy of the first e-mail message 46, with perhaps a preface message 50-1 from the first addressee 48, the second addressee does not necessarily know that the blind notification of forward message 50-2 was sent to the originator 44. Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that notice of the blind notification of forward message 50-2 transmission could easily be provided to either the first addressee 48, the second addressee 52 or both.
The message header 100 in
In the preferred embodiment, if the second addressee 52 re-forwards the first e-mail message 46 to yet another addressee not shown, the re-forwarding of the first e-mail message 46 causes another blind notification of forward message to be sent back to the originator.
While the embodiment shown in
Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the originator 44 and the addressees 48 and 52 are computers coupled to a network 43 such as the Internet. For the sake of completeness,
Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the addition of the message fields 40 and 42 is accomplished by way of a mail program such as OUTLOOK® adding the new message fields to the header using programming routines well known in the art. The ability to add the new message fields 40 and 42 is perhaps best enabled by adding a user interface “switch” or dialog box, the selection which causes the mail program running on a computer to add the fields 40 and 42 to an e-mail message header. The presence of the message fields 40 and 42 is also best detected by an e-mail program using routines well known in the art and which enable the e-mail program create and cause the transmission of the blind notification of forward messages to be sent out on the network 43 as described above.
Well known embodiments of computer program storage media/devices 45 include magnetic disk, optical disk and semiconductor RAM, ROM, DRAM, EEPROM et al.
Finally, it should be noted that while the embodiments described above relate to and contemplate message text, the invention disclosed above and claimed hereinafter also encompasses the blind notification of the retransmission of other information either forming an e-mail message or attached to such a message, such as movies and audio files attached to an e-mail message, regardless of the format of such files (MP3, MPEG, JEPG, et al.). Thus, the blind notification of forward message transmission described above can be used to guard against unauthorized acts of copying and/or distributing copyrighted material via the Internet. The concepts described above and the terms “e-mail” and “message” should be construed to include files as e-mail or part of an e-mail, whether they are attachments to an e-mail message or sent themselves. Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions or MIME is described in RFC's 2045-2049.
The apparatus and method depicted in the figures and described above are but examples of preferred embodiments of the invention claimed below. Although exemplary implementations of the invention have been depicted and described in detail herein, it will be apparent to those skilled in the relevant art that various modifications, additions, substitutions, and the like can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and these are therefore considered to be within the scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.
The invention relates generally to data communications and more particularly to text messaging commonly known as electronic mail or “e-mail.”
