0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
SONY just received a patent for a system intended "to make the recipient of electronic mail quickly and surely take actions desired by the sender."Abstract: Receiving apparatus and method, sending apparatus and method, recording medium, and communication system: Disclosed is a receiving apparatus and method, a sending apparatus and method, recording medium, and a communication system for sending or receiving electronic mail. In operatively associated with a command for opening an electronic mail message, a syntax analysis module extracts a script attached to the electronic mail message as an attachment file and analyzes the syntax of the extracted script. An execution module executes processing corresponding to the data accompanying the script or an input event. An output module controls the outputting of the results of this processing. With this configuration, a sender of electronic mail is allowed to make its recipient to quickly and securely take actions desired by the sender. --United States Patent 7,016,940; 21 March 2006.SONY engineers envisioned a method whereby you could, say, send a dinner invitation, and the recipient would be forced to respond in a timely fashion. Thus, when you opened a text message with a script attached, the program activated might enter into an endless loop, like, "Are you coming?", "Are you coming?", "Are you coming?", "Are you coming?", until you responded properly.It looked like a great idea when they submitted the patent application, back in 2001. Microsoft Outlook and other email clients were outfitted to automatically execute VBscript, Javascript, etc., when messages were opened. Originally, message scripts did everything from making animated bears dance to alerting senders that their messages had been read.Unfortunately, the subsequent flood of malware activated by opening script-infested messages brought the the whole concept to a virtual standstill.Today, few responsible senders spew email with attached scripts... And even fewer recipients open them. In fact, most are protected by network-based content filters that automatically strip or disable potentially dangerous attachments.Upshot:While SONY's process is obviously useful for carefully restricted environments, SONY will have a heck of a time collecting patent royalties from all those malware generators.Although the patent may no longer be hot, hot, hot today... times change. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
