Method and apparatus for selecting and playing a voice mail message

A method, in a telephone switching system with a voice mail box for a called party with an extension, which system includes a memory with a plurality of locations, one of which is used for the voice mail box, for the system to prevent copying of a message from a caller to the called party, comprising:

• a. receiving a call from a caller directed to the called party's extension and connecting the caller to the called party's voice mail box,
• b. receiving a message of voice sounds from the caller and recording it in the mail box,
• c. receiving from the caller an indication that the caller chooses to designate the message as "private" and, as a consequence, setting, in the memory, a flag associated with the message,
• d. receiving from the called party a command to copy a portion of the message to another location in a memory, and
• e. reading the flag and, if the flag is set, failing to execute the command.

A method, in a telephone switching system with a voice mail box for a called party with an extension, which system includes a memory for the voice mail box, for the system to permit copying and conversion of a message from digital telephone audio format to computer multimedia format comprising:

• a. receiving a message of digital telephone audio data and recording it in the mail box memory,
• b. receiving from the mail box owner a command to copy a portion of the audio data to another memory,
• c. converting the digital telephone audio data directly into digital computer multimedia audio data by converting the sample rate, the sample size, and the chunk size and
• d. writing to the other memory a file in computer multimedia format containing the portion of the converted audio data.

A method, in a telephone switching system with a voice mail box for a called party with an extension, which system includes a first memory for the voice mail box and a data path to a second memory, for the system, to permit copying and conversion of a set of audio data from computer multimedia format to digital telephone format comprising:

• a. receiving from the mail box owner a command to copy the set of audio data from the second memory to the first memory,
• b. reading from the second memory, in multimedia format, the set of audio data,
• c. converting the digital multimedia format audio data directly into digital telephone audio data by converting the sample rate, the sample size, and the chunk size, and
• d. writing to the first memory a file in digital telephone audio data format containing the portion of the audio data.