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US 6,757,713 B1Granted
Method for including a self-removing indicator in a self-removing message
OwnerJohn W. L. Ogilvie, Genie L. Ogilvieinventors
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OwnerJohn W. L. Ogilvie, Genie L. Ogilvieinventors
Estimating the term…
Methods, articles, signals, and systems are provided for providing email message originators and distributors with default control over message removal at a message recipient's location, regardless of whether the message has been opened. For instance, a self-removing message is designated as such by the message's originator, and a self-removal enhancement is added to conventional message content before the message is transmitted over a computer network toward one or more recipients. At the recipient's location, the message is automatically deleted without additional effort by the recipient, before or after being displayed, according to the originator's instructions unless they are overridden by the recipient. Messages may be automatically deleted in response to the arrival of a replacement message. Thus, the burden of removing unsolicited email messages is transferred from recipients to the system and the message's originators and/or to ISPs and other email distributors. Security of messages may also be enhanced.
A method for using self-removing email messages to shift the burden of message removal from a message recipient to at least one of a message originator and a message distributor, the method comprising the steps of:
A method for removing email messages from a recipient's location in response to an instruction from a message originator, the method comprising the steps of:
In a computer system, an improvement for using self-removing email messages to shift the burden of message removal from a message recipient to at least one of a message originator and a message distributor, the improvement comprising at least one self-removal enhancement which is associated with message content by at least one of a message originator and a message distributor, the self-removal enhancement specifying a condition for automatic removal of a copy of the message content from a recipient's location in response to a condition involving a replacement message.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.