Restriction of communication service accessibility among subscriber communities
First Claim
1. An arrangement comprising:
- first means for assigning persons who are users of a communication system to ones of a plurality of user communities;
second means for defining, for each one of said user communities, communication permissions with respect to individual ones of the other user communities;
third means responsive to an attempted communication between two persons who are users for identifying the two users and determining the two identified users'"'"' assigned communities;
fourth means responsive to the determination of the two users'"'"' assigned communities for determining from the second means whether the attempted communication between the two persons is permitted; and
fifth means responsive to a determination that the attempted communication is permitted for enabling the communication, and further responsive to a determination that the attempted communication is not permitted for preventing the communication.
10 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Subscribers (100-108) of an electronic mail system (1-2) service are divided into a plurality of subscriber communities (30-34). Subscribers in each community have common rights of access to one or more communication service--the sending and receiving of mail messages--which rights are generally different from those of subscribers in other communities. Permissions to send and receive messages between any two communities are specified on each mail system in a permissions matrix (40), wherein each row (41) represents a different sender community, each column (42) represents a different recipient community, and the value stored at their intersection (43) indicates the permission vis-a-vis the two communities. A function (50) is invoked on the sender'"'"'s mail system (1,2) at message addressing, and on the sender'"'"'s and recipients'"'"' mail systems (1,2) at message delivery, to enable or prevent (FIG. 3) message sending or delivery according to the matrix-specified permissions. Optionally, a message-associated permission (410) may be used to override matrix-specified permissions.
148 Citations
23 Claims
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1. An arrangement comprising:
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first means for assigning persons who are users of a communication system to ones of a plurality of user communities; second means for defining, for each one of said user communities, communication permissions with respect to individual ones of the other user communities; third means responsive to an attempted communication between two persons who are users for identifying the two users and determining the two identified users'"'"' assigned communities; fourth means responsive to the determination of the two users'"'"' assigned communities for determining from the second means whether the attempted communication between the two persons is permitted; and fifth means responsive to a determination that the attempted communication is permitted for enabling the communication, and further responsive to a determination that the attempted communication is not permitted for preventing the communication. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An arrangement comprising:
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first means for assigning users of a communication system to ones of a plurality of user communities; second means for defining, for each one of said user communities, communication permissions with respect to individual ones of the other user communities; third means responsive to an attempted communication between two users for determining the two users'"'"' assigned communities; fourth means responsive to the determination of the two user'"'"'s assigned communities for determining from the second means whether the attempted communication is permitted; fifth means responsive to a determination that the attempted communication is permitted for enabling the communication; sixth means for specifying an overriding permission for an attempted communication; and seventh means responsive to an overriding permission having been specified for the attempted communication by the sixth means, for enabling the communication irrespective of the permissions defined by the second means; and
whereinthe fifth means are further responsive to both (a) an overriding permission not having been specified for the attempted communication and (b) a determination by the fourth means that the attempted communication is not permitted, for preventing the communication.
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13. An arrangement comprising:
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first means for assigning users of a communication system to ones of a plurality of user communities; second means for defining, for each one of said user communities, communication permissions with respect to individual ones of the other user communities; third means responsive to an attempted communication between two users for determining the two users'"'"' assigned communities; fourth means responsive to the determination of the two user'"'"'s assigned communities for determining from the second means whether the attempted communication is permitted, at (a) time of initiation of the attempted communication, and at (b) time of completion of the attempted communication, in response to having determined at the time of initiation that the attempted communication is permitted; and fifth means responsive to a determination that the attempted communication is permitted for enabling the communication, and further responsive to a determination that the attempted communication is not permitted for preventing the communication.
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14. An arrangement comprising:
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first means for assigning users of a communication system to ones of a plurality of user communities; second means for defining, for each one of said user communities, communication permissions with respect to individual ones of the other user communities; third means responsive to an attempted communication between two users for determining the two user'"'"'s assigned communities, at (a) time of initiation of the attempted communication, and (b) time of completion of the attempted communication, in response to a determination at the time of initiation that the attempted communication is permitted; fourth means responsive to the determination of the two user'"'"'s assigned communities for determining from the second means whether the attempted communication is permitted between the two user'"'"'s assigned communities, (a) at the time of initiation and between the two user'"'"'s assigned communities determined at the time of initiation, and (b) at the time of completion and between the two user'"'"'s assigned communities determined at the time of completion, in response to having determined at the time of initiation that the attempted communication is permitted; and fifth means responsive to a determination that the attempted communication is permitted for enabling the communication, and further responsive to a determination that the attempted communication is not permitted for preventing the communication.
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15. A method of controlling communications between user communities, comprising the steps of:
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assigning each person who is a user of a communication system to one of a plurality of user communities; defining, for each one of said user communities, communication permissions with respect to individual ones of the other user communities; identifying two users, in response to an attempted communication between persons who are the two users; determining the two identified users'"'"' assigned communities; determining from the defined permissions whether the attempted communication between the two persons is permitted, in response to the determination of the two users'"'"' assigned communities; enabling the communication, in response to determining that the attempted communication is permitted; and preventing the communication, in response to determining that the attempted communication is not permitted. - View Dependent Claims (16)
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17. A method of controlling communications between user communities in a communication system including an arrangement that assigns each person who is a user of the communication system to one of a plurality of user communities, and an arrangement that defines, for each one of said user communities, communication permissions with respect to individual ones of the other user communities, comprising the steps of:
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identifying two users, in response to an attempted communication between persons who are the two users; determining the two identified users'"'"' assigned communities; determining from the defined permissions whether the attempted communication is permitted between the two persons, in response to the determination of the two users'"'"' assigned communities; enabling the communication, in response to determining that the attempted communication is permitted; and preventing the communication, in response to determining that the attempted communication is not permitted. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of controlling communications between user communities in a communication system including an arrangement that assigns each user of the communication system to one of a plurality of user communities, and an arrangement that defines, for each one of said user communities, communication permissions with respect to individual ones of the other user communities, comprising the steps of:
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determining two users'"'"' assigned communities, in response to an attempted communication between the two users; determining from the defined permissions whether the attempted communication is permitted, in response to the determination of the two user'"'"'s assigned communities; enabling the communication, in response to determining that the attempted communication is permitted; enabling the communication irrespective of the defined permissions, in response to an overriding permission having been specified for the attempted communication; and preventing the communication in response to both (a) determining that the attempted communication is not permitted and (b) an overriding permission not having been specified for the attempted communication.
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22. A method of controlling communications between user communities in a communication system including an arrangement that assigns each user of the communication system to one of a plurality of user communities, and an arrangement that defines, for each one of said user communities, communication permissions with respect to individual ones of the other user communities, comprising the steps of:
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determining two users'"'"' assigned communities, in response to an attempted communication between the two users; determining at time of initiation of the attempted communication whether the attempted communication is permitted, in response to the determination of the two user'"'"'s assigned communities; determining at time of completion of the attempted communication whether the attempted communication is permitted, in response to having determined at the time of initiation that the attempted communication is permitted; enabling the communication, in response to determining that the attempted communication is permitted; and preventing the communication, in response to determining that the attempted communication is not permitted.
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23. A method of controlling communications between user communities in a communication system including an arrangement that assigns each user of the communication system to one of a plurality of user communities, and an arrangement that defines, for each one of said user communities, communication permissions with respect to individual ones of the other user communities, comprising the steps of:
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determining two user'"'"'s assigned communities at time of initiation of an attempted communication between the two users, in response to the attempted communication; determining the two user'"'"'s assigned communities at time of completion of the attempted communication, in response to a determination at the time of initiation that the attempted communication is permitted; determining from the defined permissions at the time of initiation whether the attempted communication is permitted between the two user'"'"'s assigned communities determined at the time of initiation, in response to the determination of the two user'"'"'s assigned communities; determining from the defined permissions at the time of completion whether the attempted communication is permitted between the two user'"'"'s assigned communities determined at the time of completion, in response to a determination at the time of initiation that the attempted communication is permitted; enabling the communication, in response to determining that the attempted communication is permitted; and preventing the communication, in response to determining that the attempted communication is not permitted.
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Specification