JP2005174132A - Terminal device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technology for facilitating production of an electronic mail making a terminal device that is a destination notify an image, voice or the like, in addition to a text, and protecting copyright about notification aspects. <P>SOLUTION: This terminal device receives and stores the electronic mail, involving first data for making the terminal device that is the destination perform notification, and second data prescribing the notification state of the first data. In the terminal device, when transfer of the electronic mail is directed by a user, the second data involved in the electronic mail is deleted, and the electronic mail is transferred. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for facilitating creation of an e-mail.

  In addition to text data, image data and audio data are included, and when the destination user browses the text data, the data is notified to the destination user's terminal device in a manner predetermined by the source user. The e-mail to make is generally known. An example of such electronic mail is HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) mail. An HTML mail is an electronic mail that contains content corresponding to text, images, and voices to be notified to a destination terminal device, and data indicating a notification mode of the content is described according to the HTML grammar.

  A user who desires transmission of the HTML mail described above must describe data indicating the content notification mode according to the HTML grammar. This is difficult for users who are not familiar with HTML grammar. In order to solve such a problem, a technique for facilitating creation of an HTML mail has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  In Patent Document 1, based on a mail template provided from a content provider (hereinafter referred to as “CP”), the content provided by the content provider is notified to the destination terminal device in a manner designated by the user. Techniques for generating and sending electronic mail are disclosed. More specifically, in the mail template, HTML data (hereinafter referred to as “style sheet”) indicating a notification mode of content included in an e-mail and content designated by the user are written in the style sheet. And a control code for causing the terminal device to execute processing for generating an e-mail.

JP 2002-324036 A

  As described above, according to the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, even if the user is not familiar with the HTML grammar, the user is notified of the content in the notification mode according to his / her needs in the destination terminal device. HTML mail to be generated can be easily generated and transmitted.

  By the way, a user who has received an e-mail containing a certain style sheet can re-use the content notification mode realized by the style sheet by transferring the e-mail to another user. It should be noted that the above-described style sheet is a CP copyrighted work that created the style sheet. That is, the content notification mode realized by the style sheet must be protected by the copyright of the CP that created the style sheet. However, if the transfer of an e-mail including a style sheet is allowed without limitation, there is a risk that the copyright held by the CP may be overlaid on the content notification mode realized by the style sheet.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and facilitates the creation of an e-mail for notifying a destination terminal device of an image, sound, etc. in addition to text, and a copyright on the notification mode. The purpose is to provide technology to protect.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention transfers a receiving means for receiving an e-mail, a storing means for storing an e-mail received by the receiving means, and an e-mail stored in the storing means. When the user is instructed to do so, and the e-mail includes first data for informing the destination terminal device and second data for defining a notification mode of the first data, There is provided a terminal device comprising transfer means for deleting the second data contained in the electronic mail and transferring the electronic mail.

  According to such a terminal device, when the user is instructed to transfer an e-mail containing the first data and the second data, the e-mail from which the second data is deleted is transferred. The

  According to the present invention, when transferring an HTML mail received from a certain terminal device to another terminal device, the HTML mail from which the style sheet has been deleted is transferred, and the expression by the style sheet is illegally reused. The effect that it is prevented is produced. As a result, there is an effect that it is possible to prevent the copyright on the style sheet from being suspended.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[A. Constitution]
(1: Configuration of communication system)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a communication system having a terminal device according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the communication system includes a mail server device 20 connected to a communication network 10 such as the Internet, and terminal devices 30A, 30B and 30C connected to the communication network 10. have. In FIG. 1, three terminal devices are illustrated, but there are actually a large number of terminal devices.

  The mail server device 20 is a computer device operated by a certain business operator and has a mail server function for providing an electronic mail service. Specifically, the mail server device 20 is provided with a unique mailbox for each user who has signed a contract to use the electronic mail service provided by the business operator. The mail server device 20 stores the e-mail transmitted to the user's e-mail address via the communication network 10 in the user's mailbox while the e-mail transmitted from the user's terminal device. Is transferred to the destination. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that user A, user B, and user C have a contract with the provider.

  The terminal devices 30A, 30B, and 30C are, for example, personal computers (hereinafter, “PCs”), and are used by unique users. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the user A uses the terminal device 30A, the user B uses the terminal device 30B, and the user C uses the terminal device 30C. Hereinafter, when it is not necessary to distinguish each of these three terminal devices, they are referred to as “terminal device 30”. When it is not necessary to distinguish each of the users A, B, and C, they are simply “users”. Is written. The terminal device 30 has a mail client function for allowing the user to use the electronic mail service provided by the mail server device 20. More specifically, the terminal device 30 stores, for example, a style sheet provided by the provider in advance in its own device, generates an HTML mail based on the style sheet, and sends the HTML mail to the mail server device. 20 can be transmitted. Further, the terminal device 30 can receive the HTML mail transmitted from the mail server device 20, and can notify the data included in the HTML mail in accordance with the style sheet included in the HTML mail. .

  In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the terminal device 30 generates and transmits an HTML mail having the data format shown in FIG. In the HTML mail shown in FIG. 2, the portion surrounded by the style sheet tags (<STYL> and </ STYL>) is the style sheet of the HTML mail, and the body tags (<BODY> and <BODY>) / BODY>) is data corresponding to the text of the HTML mail (hereinafter referred to as “text data”). This style sheet includes data that defines the display mode of text data (character color, font size, font type, background color, etc.) and data corresponding to image data corresponding to an image to be displayed together with the text data (for example, , The URL of the image data, etc.). When the terminal device 30 receives the HTML mail having the data format shown in FIG. 2, for example, the terminal device 30 displays the image shown in FIG. 3 on the display unit.

  In this embodiment, a case where a PC having a mail client function and connected to the communication network 10 is used as the terminal device 30 will be described. However, the terminal device 30 may be a mobile phone or PHS having a mail client function. (Personal Handyphone System: registered trademark) or PDA (Personal Digital Assistance). An example of the communication network 10 used in such a case is a mobile packet communication network that accommodates the terminal device 30.

  In the communication system shown in FIG. 1, for example, when the terminal device 30A that has received the HTML mail transmitted from the terminal device 30B is instructed by the user A to transfer the HTML mail to the terminal device 30C. The HTML mail from which the style sheet has been deleted is transferred. In this way, the communication system avoids unlimited reuse of the style sheet.

(2: Configuration of terminal device 30)
Next, the configuration of the terminal device 30 will be described with reference to FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the terminal device 30. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the terminal device 30 includes a control unit 410, a display unit 420, an operation unit 430, and a communication unit 440. And a storage unit 450 and a bus 460 that mediates data exchange between these components.

  The control unit 410 is, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit), and controls each unit of the terminal device 30 by executing software stored in the storage unit 450.

  The display unit 420 is a liquid crystal display and its drive circuit, and has a function of displaying an image corresponding to the image data delivered from the control unit 410. The operation unit 430 includes a plurality of operators for allowing the user to input numbers, characters, various operation instructions, and the like, and has a function of delivering data corresponding to the operation contents of these operators to the control unit 410. Yes.

  The communication unit 440 is connected to the communication network 10, receives data transmitted from the communication network 10, delivers the received data to the control unit 410, and transfers the data delivered from the control unit 410 to the communication network 10. To be sent.

  The storage unit 450 includes a volatile storage unit 451 and a nonvolatile storage unit 452. The volatile storage unit 451 is, for example, a RAM (Random Access Memory), and is used as a work area by the control unit 410 executing software. On the other hand, the non-volatile storage unit 452 is, for example, a hard disk, and stores an e-mail address of a user who uses the terminal device 30. The nonvolatile storage unit 452 stores an e-mail received via the communication unit 440. Further, the nonvolatile storage unit 452 has OS software for causing the control unit 410 to implement an operating system (hereinafter referred to as “OS”), and a mail client function under the control of the OS. Stores mail client software and the like to be realized. Hereinafter, functions provided to the control unit 410 by executing these software will be described.

  When the power supply (not shown) of the terminal device 30 is turned on, the control unit 410 first reads the OS software from the nonvolatile storage unit 452 and executes it. The control unit 410 executing the OS software is provided with a function of controlling each unit of the terminal device 30 and a function of executing other software based on a user instruction input via the operation unit 430. For example, when the user is instructed to execute the mail client software, the control unit 410 reads the mail client software from the nonvolatile storage unit 452 and executes it. The control unit 410 that is executing the mail client software is given the following three functions.

  The first function is a function for generating and transmitting an HTML mail based on a style sheet stored in the nonvolatile storage unit 452. The second function is that when the user is instructed to view the HTML mail stored in the non-volatile storage unit 452, the content included in the HTML mail is converted into a style sheet included in the electronic mail. Therefore, it is a function to notify. Note that the first and second functions are functions that are generally provided in terminal devices that can use style sheets, and thus detailed description thereof is omitted.

  The third function is a function of transferring an e-mail according to the flowchart shown in FIG. 5 when the user is instructed to transfer the e-mail stored in the non-volatile storage unit 452.

  As described above, the terminal device 30 according to the present embodiment has the same configuration as that of a general computer device, and allows the control unit 410 to execute various types of software stored in the nonvolatile storage unit 452. A function specific to the terminal device according to the present invention is given.

[B. Operation]
Next, among the operations performed by the terminal device 30 described above, only operations that significantly show the characteristics of the terminal device according to the present invention will be described. As a premise for explaining this operation example, it is assumed that an HTML mail (see FIG. 2) transmitted from the terminal device 30B is stored in the nonvolatile storage unit 452 of the terminal device 30A. In the following, the terminal device 30A performs the case where the user is instructed to transfer the electronic mail to the terminal device 30C and the case where the user is instructed to transfer the electronic mail to the terminal device 30B. The operation will be described.

(Operation example 1: Operation when instructed to transfer to terminal device 30C)
When the user A is instructed to transfer the received HTML mail, the control unit 410 of the terminal device 30A transfers the HTML mail according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  First, the control unit 410 generates a copy of the HTML mail instructed by the user to be transferred, writes the e-mail address input by the user A as the HTML mail transfer destination to the copied HTML mail, A transfer mail is generated (step SA1). In this operation example, since the email address of the user C is input as the destination email address, the email address of the user C is written in the copied HTML mail as the transfer destination.

  When the control unit 410 is instructed to send a forwarded mail by pressing a forward button (not shown), for example, whether or not the forwarded mail is a reply to the sender of the HTML mail. Is determined (step SA2). Specifically, the control unit 410 determines whether or not the destination e-mail address of the transfer mail matches the e-mail address of the transmission source HTML mail, and the two match. If so, it is determined that the reply is to the sender.

  If the determination result in step SA2 is “Yes”, control unit 410 transfers the forwarded mail generated in step SA1 as it is to the destination e-mail address (step SA3). Conversely, if the determination result in step SA2 is “No”, control unit 410 deletes the style sheet from the transfer mail generated in step SA1 (step SA4), and the transfer mail from which the style sheet has been deleted. Is transferred to the destination e-mail address (step SA5). In this operation example, the destination email address of the forwarded mail is the email address of the user C, and the source email address of the HTML mail that is the copy source of the forwarded mail is the email address of the user B. Therefore, the two do not match, and the determination result in step SA2 is “No”. For this reason, in this operation example, the above-described processing of step SA4 and step SA5 is performed.

  The forwarded mail thus transferred is first received by the mail server device 20, and transmitted from the mail server device 20 to the terminal device 30C. The terminal device 30C receives the forwarded mail and causes the display unit 420 to display an image corresponding to the content of the forwarded mail. Here, since the forward mail does not include a style sheet, only the text data of the forward mail is displayed on the display unit 420 of the terminal device 30C, as shown in FIG.

(Operation Example 2: Operation when Transferring to Terminal Device 30B)
Next, the operation of the control unit 410 of the terminal device 30A when the user A is instructed to transfer the received HTML mail to the email address of the user B will be described. Even in such a case, the control unit 410 performs the same operation as steps SA1 and SA2 of the operation example 1 described above. However, the present operation example is different in that the electronic mail address of user B is input as the electronic mail address of the destination in step SA1. For this reason, the determination result of step SA2 is “Yes”.

  Since the determination result of step SA2 is “Yes”, the control unit 410 of the terminal device 30A performs the process of step SA3 described above. That is, control unit 410 transfers the forwarded mail generated in step SA1 as it is to the destination electronic mail address. In this embodiment, when the destination email address of the forwarded mail matches the source email address of the forwarded HTML mail, the forwarded mail is not deleted without deleting the style sheet. Explained the case of sending. This is because the destination of the forward mail is surely the user who uses the style sheet properly, and there is no possibility that the style sheet is illegally reused. However, even in such a case, it is of course possible to delete the style sheet.

  The forwarded mail thus transferred is received by the mail server device 20 and transmitted from the mail server device 20 to the terminal device 30B, which is the same as in the case of the first operation example. The terminal device 30B receives this forwarded mail and causes the display unit 420 to display an image corresponding to the content of the forwarded mail. Here, since this forwarded mail includes a style sheet, as shown in FIG. 7, the text data and image data of this forwarded mail are displayed on the display unit 420 of the terminal device 30B.

[C. Modified example]
Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to such embodiments, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the technical idea. In addition, as a modification, the following can be considered, for example.

(C-1: Modification 1)
In the above-described embodiment, the case where the HTML mail received from a certain terminal device is transferred to another terminal device other than the terminal device is always deleted and transferred. However, when the identifier indicating that the copyright is abandoned is associated with the style sheet, it is needless to say that the style sheet may be transferred without being deleted.

  Also, until the elapse of a predetermined period starting from the time when the HTML mail is transmitted or the time when the HTML mail is received, or until the predetermined date elapses, the above style sheet is not deleted and transferred as it is. It may be allowed to do this, and if it is within a predetermined number of times, it may be allowed to transfer it without deleting the style sheet.

  Even if the HTML mail received from a certain terminal device is transferred to another terminal device other than the terminal device, the user who instructed the transfer is the same as the style sheet included in the HTML mail. When the style sheet is owned, it may be permitted to transfer the style sheet as it is without deleting the style sheet.

(C-2: Modification 2)
In the above-described embodiment, the terminal device that stores the software (e-mail client software) according to the present invention in advance has been described. However, by storing the software according to the present invention in a general computer device, the same function as the terminal device according to the present embodiment can be given.

  Specifically, the present embodiment is applied to a general computer device by installing software related to the general computer device using the recording medium readable by the computer device and recording the software. The same function as that of the terminal device according to can be provided.

It is a figure which shows the structural example of the communication system which has the terminal device 30 which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the HTML mail which the terminal device 30 receives. It is a figure which shows an example of the image displayed on the display part 420 of the terminal device 30. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the terminal device 30. FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the email transfer process which the terminal device 30 performs. It is a figure which shows an example of the image displayed on the display part 420 of the terminal device 30C. It is a figure which shows an example of the image displayed on the display part 420 of the terminal device 30B.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Communication network, 20 ... Mail server apparatus, 30 ... Terminal device, 410 ... Control part, 420 ... Display part, 430 ... Operation part, 440 ... Communication part, 450 ... Memory | storage part, 451 ... Volatile memory part, 452 ... Nonvolatile storage unit, 460, bus.

Claims (2)

Receiving means for receiving e-mail;
Storage means for storing the e-mail received by the receiving means;
The first data for instructing the user to transfer the e-mail stored in the storage means and notifying the destination terminal device of the e-mail and the notification mode of the first data are defined. And a transfer unit that deletes the second data included in the e-mail and transfers the e-mail when the second data is included. The transfer means includes
The electronic mail is transferred as it is without deleting the second data when the user is instructed to transfer the electronic mail to the transmission source. Terminal device.

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