[DMCA-Activists] Microsoft: Now Possible to Implement Locked Down Email

[Seth Johnson]

(That is, "We now believe we hold command over public communications 
and private computing, and we can now sell privacy."  See 
http://www.nyfairuse.org/action/palladium/palladium.boycott.xhtml  
BTW, Microsoft holds a "patent" on a "DRM Operating System."  See 
http://cryptome.org/ms-drmos-sj.htm  -- Seth)

> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3205080.stm


Microsoft launches 'leak-proof' e-mail 


The latest version of Microsoft's popular Office software will, the 
company claims, allow users to send e-mails that will "self-destruct" 
after a set time. 

The development is designed to improve security - and avoid 
potentially embarrassing messages coming back to haunt senders. 

Microsoft says users will also be able to restrict who is allowed to 
read an e-mail - and prevent recipients from forwarding messages to 
other users or printing them off. 

The new software - known as Information Rights Management - could 
potentially be used by governments and companies to prevent leaks of 
sensitive information. 

Private e-mails 

Several Wall Street analysts and bankers have been reprimanded or 
sacked in recent years for sending potentially incriminating 
electronic messages. 

In the most high profile case, Merrill Lynch technology analyst Henry 
Blodget was forced to resign after investigators discovered he had 
been actively promoted stocks he privately rubbished in e-mails 
as "junk". 

In the UK, government special adviser Jo Moore was sacked after she 
sent an e-mail describing 11 September 2001 as a good day to "bury" 
bad news. 

More recently, private e-mails messages from members of the British 
Government and the BBC have been disclosed by the Hutton inquiry into 
the death of Dr David Kelly. 

Regulators 

Microsoft says Office 2003, which is to be launched on Tuesday, will 
allow users to "time stamp" e-mails, ordering them to be deleted on a 
set date. 

But any organisation planning to install the new software may run into 
opposition from regulators. 

In the United States, destroying e-mails is a federal offence, 
regarded in a similar light to shredding documents. 

Earlier this year, brokers Morgan Stanley were fined $1.65m for 
failing to keep e-mail records. 

The company says the deletions were an oversight, rather than a 
deliberate attempt to obstruct financial investigators. 

Office 2003 also includes software intended to protect confidential 
information held in Microsoft Excel or Word programmes. 

It is also designed to make it easier to read messages online, rather 
than printing them out, through a new viewing pane. 


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/3205080.stm

Published: 2003/10/19 13:15:22 GMT