JPH02149046A - Electronic mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the occurrence of missing or alteration of mail by adding designation information to identify between a text area whose contents can not be corrected and a write area to which comment, etc., can be freely written to the mail by a mail sending person. CONSTITUTION:When a mail generating person designates the write area, a write control part 13 receives it, and adds it as a write area control table to the corresponding page of the mail. Next, a destination to which the mail is circulated is designated. The list of the circulating destination designated by the mail generating person is received by a mail destination control part 14, and is added as destination control information in the mail header to the mail. The sent mail is circulated in conformity to designated circulating order. A circulative receiving person takes out the mail from a mail storage part 3, and displays it on the display of an output part 6. At that time, the text area and the write area are indicated by different colors so as to indicate clearly a writable area to the circulative receiving person. Thus, is can be protected from the alteration by the circulative receiving person.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an e-mail system, and in particular, an e-mail system for preventing falsification and loss of e-mail contents [Prior art] E-mail is a paper document. Instead of exchanging documents, documents are quickly exchanged by electronic means using computers and communication networks, and many e-mail systems have already been implemented. There are three ways to send e-mail: a method of sending the same document to a single recipient, a method of sending the same document to multiple recipients at the same time (return), and a method of sending the same document to multiple recipients in a designated order (circulation).

The transmission format of electronic mail may differ from that of paper mail. In the case of paper mail, even if the purpose is to send a circular to multiple recipients at the same time, a circular format is often used to reduce the number of paper copies. On the other hand, with e-mail, there is no need to reduce copying due to cost. Therefore, when broadcasting is the purpose, circular reporting is also used as a means. The e-mail circulation format is used when it is necessary to circulate documents in order, such as when deliberation is required according to an office structure.

[Problem A to be solved by the invention] In the circulation of e-mails, a single document is passed between multiple users and the purpose is often to discuss the contents, so the contents may be inadvertently changed along the way. Change must be avoided. In the case of paper documents, it is easy to detect falsifications, except for things like pencil writing. On the other hand, in the case of an e-mail created by keyboard operation using the document processing function of an e-mail terminal, even if the e-mail is tampered with using the same document processing function with Circulating Light, subsequent users will not be able to see the document. This alone does not reveal the fact that it has been tampered with.

Therefore, in e-mail, it is important to prevent falsification of the e-mail while it is being circulated.

A first object of the present invention is to provide a means for preventing the contents of an e-mail from being tampered with while the e-mail is being circulated.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a means for preventing mail being circulated from being lost.

A third object of the present invention is to provide a means for ensuring that mail is correctly circulated to the recipients of the circulation without loss or falsification of the mail.

A fourth object of the present invention is to provide a means for assuring who has written what by associating written contents such as comments on e-mail with the person who wrote them.

[Means to solve the problem]

For the first purpose above, in order to prevent email content from being tampered with during email circulation, the email sender may include a body area (the first
Specifying information is added to identify the writing area (second area) where comments and the like can be written freely. When a reader attempts to write, the e-mail terminal determines whether or not it is a place where writing is permitted based on the designated information. If the above specified information cannot be written, the write request is rejected. Furthermore, when displaying an email on the display of the email terminal, one body area and the writing area are displayed in different colors, thereby providing a means for visually clarifying the two types of areas.

For the second purpose, information on the list of readers is added to the e-mail, and each e-mail terminal monitors where the request issuer ranks among the recirculators in response to an e-mail deletion request from the operator. If the e-mail deletion request comes from someone other than the e-mail sender or the last-time poor person, the e-mail deletion request will be rejected.

For the third purpose, in order to ensure that the email can be circulated to the intended recipient without tampering with the content, information to identify the recipient is added to the above email, and the email is sent to the recipient. Personal identification information entered (e.g. magnetic card,
9. For the fourth purpose, information that connects the information that functions as a confirmation mark of the circulation person with the content written by the circulation person. The e-mail terminal attaches this to the e-mail as e-mail management information.

[Effect]

11'.

By using the above-mentioned means, each reader cannot modify the contents of the mail other than the portions for which he or she is permitted to write.

Thereby, the sender of the mail can protect the parts that should not be tampered with during circulation.

Preventing falsification during circulation is necessary not only for the contents of the e-mail at the time of sending, but also for the contents written by the person circulating the e-mail during one circulation. This case can also be realized by applying the above means.

E-mail from a mid-way reader! ? By prohibiting I-elimination, it is possible to prevent mail from being lost during circulation.

【Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of an e-mail system. The communication network L9 is composed of a local area network, a wide area network, and the like. The communication network 19 includes a plurality of mail terminals 17-
1 to 17-n are connected. Each email terminal has
- Å or more email senders and receivers belong to the organization. For example, a mail sender/receiver 18-1 belongs to the mail terminal 17-1.

A circular mail created at a certain mail terminal is circulated among mail terminals to which a designated reader belongs in a designated order. FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of a mail terminal. In the explanation of FIGS. 1 and 2 and the following embodiments based on these, each mail terminal owns a mailbox corresponding to the mail sender/receiver to which it belongs, and direct mail transmission and reception is performed between the mail terminals. An example of such an e-mail system is taken up. However, the present invention also applies to other e-mail system configurations, such as an e-mail system in which a mail server is installed at each mail terminal, and mailboxes are collectively managed there. It can be applied without

In Fig. 1, 1 communication interface 1 is connected to the A network. Information exchange with other mail terminals is
Everything is done via the communication interface 1. The sender/receiver identification unit 2 is used to confirm the identity of the sender or receiver when sending an email or retrieving a received email. Received mail or mail waiting to be sent is stored in the mail storage section 3.

The mail storage unit 3 has mailboxes corresponding to mail senders and receivers belonging to the mail terminal, and received mails are put into the corresponding mailboxes according to their destinations. Various management information such as destination list of the mail system and mail transmission/reception history are stored in the history/management information storage section 4. The input section 5 and the output section 6 are points of contact between the mail terminal and a human.

The creation and output of e-mails, and the exchange of commands associated with sending and receiving e-mails, etc., are all performed via the input section 5 or the output section 6. The input unit 5 includes a keyboard, a mouse, a scanner, or a handwritten character input device. The output unit 6 is composed of a display, a printer, or the like. The CPU 7 executes a program 9 stored in the memory 8. The program 9 consists of a mail sending/receiving process 10 to a mail status management 15. The mail sending/receiving process 10 sends and receives mail and control information such as status adjustment commands to and from other mail terminals via the communication interface 1, and also retrieves sent mail. Creating emails and writing comments to emails is part of document processing 11. When writing to a 0-circulation email, writing part recognition processing 12 checks whether it is in an area where writing is permitted. is monitoring. In the case of a non-writable part, document processing 11
I will inform you of this and prohibit you from writing. It is the writing area management 13 that creates the information on which the writing part recognition processing 12 determines whether writing is possible. Here, a list of writable areas is held in the form of a rectangular area based on the write area specification at the time of e-mail creation. Furthermore, if the portion written by the reader is also prohibited from being writable by subsequent readers, the writable area is corrected during the circulation. The mail destination management 14 manages destination information required when sending mail or when circulating mail to the next time. Additionally, email status management 1 handles the process of specifying proxy recipients and bypass when the recipient is absent.
5 grasps the status of received mail or mail waiting to be sent. It is also used to respond to mail circulation statuses from others using historical information and the like.

The data buffer 16 is a memory area for temporarily storing information that is being processed or frequently used in the mail storage section 3 and the history/management information storage section 4. (
Each component in FIG. 1 will be referred to as appropriate without reference number in the following explanation. ) Examples of the e-mail structure and pages within the e-mail to prevent falsification of the e-mail being circulated are shown in Figures 3 and 4, respectively.
However, write area control tables 60-1 to 60-n are attached to each page constituting the mail (a configuration example of the mail header and the write area control table will be described later). Each page of an email is composed of a body area where no one is allowed to write, and a writing area where one can write. Each region is represented by a rectangular area. In the example of FIG. 4, page 20-3 includes text areas 30-1 and 30-2,
A mail is composed of two areas each shown as write areas 40-1 and 40-2.

Next, the procedure for creating the mail shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 will be explained below. FIG. 5 shows the procedure from creating a mail to sending it. In step 50, the document processing 11 creates the email body. In step 51, the mail creator first specifies a writing area. The write area management 13 receives it and attaches it to the corresponding page of the email as a write area control table. An example of the structure of this control table is shown in FIG. The number of writing areas is 61.
Indicates the number of write areas that exist on the page. After that,
Specifying write areas for the number of write areas 62-2.62
-2. ..., 62-n continues.

The writing area 62-1 has two plane coordinate sets (xil,
yil), (xi2.yi2). The first coordinate is the address of the upper left corner of the rectangular writing area expressed as relative coordinates from the top of the page. The second coordinate similarly indicates the coordinate of the lower right corner. In the page example of FIG. 40-2
The coordinates corresponding to are entered.

Returning to FIG. 5, in step 52, Shun specifies the writing area and specifies the circulation destination. The list of circulation destinations specified by the mail creator is received by the mail destination management 14 and attached to the mail as destination management information in the mail header. FIG. 7 shows an example of the configuration of the mail ladder 100. FIG. 7 also includes management information for mail proxy reception and bypass processing, which will be described later. The number of circulation users 105 includes the number of designated circulation destinations. Below is the first list 4! From t110-1 to the last circulation person 110-n, the ID of the circulation person is entered at the specified ()ll'.

At step 53, mail circulation begins.

A request to send an email is received by an email sending/receiving process 10. In the mail sending/receiving process 10, necessary information is set in the mail header shown in FIG. 7 based on the mail sending request. The mail IDl0I is information for uniquely identifying the mail. This can be used, for example, as a caller ID.
A combination of the date and time of sending may be used as long as the mail can be uniquely identified. The sender 102 contains the sender's ID. If a sender/receiver identification mechanism is incorporated, the sender/receiver identification 2 is used to verify the identity of the sender. The sender 103 contains the date and time of sending the e-mail.

The sent mail is circulated according to the specified circulation order. FIG. 8 shows an example of the flow of processing for intermediate circulation users excluding the last circulation person. As the process progresses, information in the part of the mail header 100 in FIG. 7 corresponding to the circulation person is set. . For the sake of explanation, the following assumes the processing of the first viewer. The subsequent processing by the reader also follows the explanation below. In step 201, the mail sending/receiving process 10 receives the mail sent from the sender (or the previous viewer if the sender is not the first viewer) and stores the mail in the mail storage section 3. Accumulated mail will remain in the mail retrieval waiting list 7I! until there is a request for retrieval from the reader. i 202.

When a mail retrieval request is issued in step 203, the mail sending/receiving process 10 uses the sender/receiver identification unit 2 to confirm in step 204 whether or not the person making the retrieval request is the person in question. The result is determined in step 205,
If the user is not the person himself/herself, the mail will not be handed over and the process returns to the mail retrieval waiting state 202. If the user is the user, the e-mail retrieval date and time is set in the retrieval date 140-1 in the mail header 100 (in the case of the first viewer, the same applies hereinafter) in the mail header 100 in step 206. In step 207.

The mail is retrieved from the mail storage section 3 and displayed on the display of the output section 11. At this time, the text area and the writing area are displayed in different colors to clearly show the writable area to the reader.

Writing in the writing area of the reader for the email 30
Details of 0 are shown in FIG. Here, we will take as an example a method that can protect the written content from tampering by a subsequent reader and at the same time guarantee the correspondence between the written content and the reader. Comments and the like are written in the mail by the reader using the document processing 11, using means such as the keyboard of the input unit 5 or handwriting. At this time, the document processing 11 uses the writing part recognition processing 12 to determine whether the part that the reader is trying to write belongs to the writing area or the main text area based on the address of the cursor or touch. 301 to monitor. The result is determined in step 302, and writing is rejected in the case of the text area. If it is a write area, writing is performed in step 303. For the purpose of explaining the following processing, it is assumed that writing as shown in FIG. 10 has been performed. In other words, the page 20-4 containing the email is displayed in the body area 3 when the email is retrieved.
0-3 and a write area 40-3. In response to this, writing shown at 70 is performed. Step 304
Then, by the written part recognition process 12, the area 70 in which writing has been performed is cut out as a rectangular area, and its upper left corner address and lower right corner address are obtained as a relative legend from the top of the page. In step 305, the write area management 13 corrects the value of the y coordinate of the upper left corner address of the corresponding write area in the write area control table 60 of FIG. In the example of FIG. 10, the state of the write area 40-3 is corrected to a value corresponding to 4O-3a. As a result, the content 70 written by the first reader becomes a writable area when it is circulated to the next reader, and the written content is protected. In step 306, the write management table information shown in FIG. 7 is corrected. In the write area management 13, first the first circular #write management table 131
-1 storage area and set its start address to the write management table address 130-1.0 Next, add 1 to the number of writes 132-1 (initial value is zero),
The writing page number 133-1-1 is written as Pm x 20-4 to 1. The address of the rectangular area of the write area 70 obtained in step 304 is entered in the first g-included portion 134-1-1. It is determined in step 307 whether there is any next writing, and if there is, writing 300 to the writing area is executed again. However, in this case, of course, the first viewer write management table already exists, so there is no need to secure storage space for it, and the above processing, such as setting information to the corresponding location instead of the first write section, is necessary. The content needs to be modified to suit the situation.

Returning to FIG. 8, if there is no writing or if writing is completed, the mail enters a transmission waiting state 209.

Although not shown in the diagram, during this period, when the sender issues an email request in step 210, which may include processing such as copying the email in order to save it as personal information, The sending/receiving process 10 uses the sender/receiver identification unit 2 to confirm in step 211 whether the person requesting the transmission is the person in question. The result is determined in step 212, and if the user is not the user, the mail is not sent and the process returns to the mail sending waiting state 209. If you are the person,
In step 213, the message (i day 15) in the mail header 100 is
Set the sending date and time of the email in 0-1, and step 21
In step 4, send the email to the next person who circulated it. On the other hand, in the state of waiting for mail to be sent, if a mail deletion request is issued from the reader in step 215, the mail sending/receiving process 10 is deleted in step 216 since the deletion request is from someone other than the sender or the last recipient. A rejection response is returned and the process returns to the mail transmission waiting state 209. This prevents the mail from being lost by a person who circulates it mid-way.

In the series of processing steps shown in FIG. 8, the mail status management 15 collects history information as appropriate in response to events such as reception, retrieval, or transmission of mail, and stores it in the history/management information storage section 4. To adjust the status of mail circulation, etc.,
Answer using this history information.

In FIG. 8, the processing for the mid-circumscriber has been described, but the processing flow up to step 300 is basically the same for the final circulation user. The difference is that there is no forwarding and the mail can be deleted.

The above is just one embodiment of the invention, and many other modifications are possible without changing the spirit of the invention. For example, in an email that does not have page breaks in Figure 3,
You can think of an entire email as being made up of one page. Furthermore, the format and contents of the control tables in FIGS. 6 and 7 do not need to be as shown in the figures. For example, in order to obtain a more detailed mail circulation history, in the mail header of FIG. 7, each pair of circulation users +, j;
may also include information on the date and time of email reception. Furthermore, not all elements of the above embodiments are required to implement the present invention. For example, the sender/receiver identification section 2 and the sender/receiver identification process using it are not necessary just to protect the writing by the reader in the text areas 30-1 and 30-2 in FIG. 4.

In the above embodiment, the sender/receiver identification section 2 and the sender/receiver identification process using the same have already been described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 8. By using this and the mail header or the history information in the history/management information storage section 4, it is possible to not only guarantee that the mail has been sent to the person in question, but also know the state of the circulation without losing or tampering with the mail. For example, assume that the first reader of a certain email retrieves the email after confirming his/her identity, and then circulates the email to the next person (he may also write in the writing area during this time to confirm the content). In the process of this series of processes, the date and time corresponding to the first reader's take-out date 140-1 and sending date 150-1 in the mail header 100 in FIG. 7 are set by the mail end (FIG. 8). . As a result, the date and time when the first reader retrieved the e-mail and the date and time when the e-mail was sent are recorded in the e-mail header, with the guarantee that the person is the person who viewed the e-mail.

This is equivalent to the person stamping a confirmation stamp on a traditional paper circular. Accordingly, the mail terminal also stores history information in the history/management information storage section 4 using the mail status management 15.For example, a sender of a certain mail may check the status of the circulation of the mail to a particular reader, Suppose that you arrive at the mail terminal of .At this time, on the mail terminal,
When the mail status l\ is detected, the controller 15 searches the history/management information storage unit 4 for history information of the mail based on the mail ID, and returns the result to the mail sender. Depending on the result, the status of the circulation of the mail to the person who circulated the mail can be determined with certainty. If the mail has not been received at the mail terminal, the mail is still being circulated to a previous circulation user. If the mail has been received but has not been retrieved by the reader, it is in an unprocessed state. If the mail has been retrieved but has not been sent, the mail is currently being processed. If the mail has been sent, the process for the reader has been completed and a confirmation stamp has been stamped.

The above-mentioned confirmation mark function and the protection function of written contents after writing to the writing area explained in FIG. 9 (step 305)
By combining the function (step 306) for associating the content written in the writing area with the person who circulated, which was also explained in FIG. It is possible to protect and reflect the contents entered by the person. In other words, the contents of the pros and cons entered by each circulator are associated with the circulator who filled it out, and the contents of each entry cannot be tampered with by subsequent circulators, and furthermore, each circulator cannot be tampered with. We only receive and send emails after confirming your identity.

The explanation so far has been based on the assumption that any number of writing areas can be secured at any location in the email. However, in the case of an email that only requires one writing area for comments, such as a circular for content approval, management of the writing area can be much simpler. FIG. 11 shows a typical example of such a mail structure. The email shown in FIG. 11 may be composed of multiple pages. An email consists of a continuous body area 30-4 (even if it spans multiple pages) followed by one writing area 40-4.
It is made up of. In this case, the write area control table of FIG. 6 is unnecessary. In addition, the writing management tables 131-1 to 131-n for each circulation groove shown in FIG.
is also unnecessary. Instead, items as shown in FIG. 12 are added to the mail header 100. Writing area 106
The coordinates corresponding to the writing area 40-4 in FIG. 11 are entered. Corresponding to the writing by each reader, the corresponding coordinates are entered from the 1st-th reader's writing part 160-4 to the last-rounder's writing part 160-n. Other processing is based on the previous embodiment.

In the processing flow shown in FIG. 8, mail cannot be processed by anyone other than the person who is circulating the mail. However, with this method, if the reader is absent for a long period of time, the mail will be delayed. In order to avoid this, it is possible for the first reader to specify how to deal with mail while he or she is absent. There are two ways to deal with emails while the recipient is absent: one is to designate a substitute recipient, and the other is to designate a bypass for circulation. In the former case, a proxy processes the mail addressed to the circulation person instead of the circulation person himself/herself, and in the latter case, the mail system bypasses the circulation mail addressed to the circulation person and sends it to the next circulation person. These specifications are executed by the circulation person in the mail destination management 14 of the mail terminal. The mail destination management 14 reflects the designated information in the history/management information storage section 4 based on the designation of a substitute recipient or a bypass.

The above-mentioned handling method is specified by the sender, but from the sender's perspective, there are some emails that the sender does not want to be shown to proxy recipients other than the sender. In this case, the proxy recipient is designated to bypass when sending the email.

With this designation, the proxy recipient bypass designation 104 in the mail header 100 in FIG. 7 is turned on.

FIG. 13 shows an example of a processing flow in which the above-described proxy recipient and bypass processing are added to the processing flow for the intermediate reader in FIG. 8. The processes already explained in FIG. 8 will be omitted, and the changes will be explained below using FIG. 7 as well. Steps 221 and 2
At step 22, the mail destination management 14 uses the information in the history/management information storage section 4 to check whether the recipient has designated an absentee bypass or a substitute recipient. Is there a bypass specification in step 221?
Or if there is a proxy recipient designation and step 223
If the proxy recipient bypass designation 104 by the sender is on, the circulation to the circulation person is bypassed. In order to clearly indicate the fact of bypass, a bypass code (for example, all O or all 1) is set in the retrieval date 140-i corresponding to the reader in step 227. If it is not bypass processing, when the mail is retrieved, the mail is handed over in step 224 if the recipient is a proxy recipient even if the recipient is not the recipient himself/herself.

However, in this case, in step 225, the proxy recipient 120
-Set the ID of the proxy recipient in i. Similarly, when sending a mail, even if the recipient is not the recipient himself/herself, if the recipient is a proxy recipient, the sending process is performed in step 226.

〔Effect of the invention〕

In e-mail systems, the broadcast function is used to normally communicate information to multiple people, so the e-mail circulation function is used to discuss the contents of e-mails among the users in a specified order. The case is the main thing. In this case, it is necessary to avoid the content of the email being changed during circulation or the email being lost, whether intentionally or accidentally.

According to the present invention, since it is impossible for the reader to write or modify anything other than the writable area specified when creating the email, the sender of the email can send the email without worrying that the content of the email will be tampered with while it is being circulated. It has the effect of being circulated. When displaying the mail on the display of the mail terminal during circulation, the reader can visually determine the writable area by displaying the writable area and the impossible area in different colors.

Furthermore, when the number of write areas is limited to one, management of the write areas can be simplified. Furthermore, since the user who is in the middle of circulating the mail cannot delete the mail that is being circulated, the mail will not be lost while being circulated.

In addition, the content written in the writable area by the circulator is changed to a writable area when it is circulated to the next circulator, so the circulator's writing is similarly protected from tampering. can do. Furthermore, by holding information on the correspondence between the written part and the person who wrote it.

You can see who wrote what.

Furthermore, by combining the e-mail system with the above-mentioned effects with a sender/receiver identification mechanism, it is possible to guarantee that the e-mail will be sent to the intended recipient without being lost or tampered with. At this time, you can specify a substitute recipient in the absence of the circulator,
It is possible to specify a circulation bypass for the person concerned. Furthermore, by acquiring history information in the email header and email terminal in response to events such as sending and receiving emails, it is possible to provide a confirmation mark when a reader sees an email and to guarantee the status of email circulation. function can be realized.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a mail terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 2 is an example of the configuration of an e-mail system, and Figures 3 and 4 are examples of email configurations and email pages that have a separate writing area where mail readers can write and a body area where they cannot. , Figure 5 is an example of the flow of email creation/sending processing, Figure 6 is an example of a table for managing writable areas within each email page, and Figure 7 is an example of email circulation management and circulation information. An example of an email header for managing the correspondence with the part written by the person who circulated, Figure 8 is an example of the flow of processing for intermediate readers other than the sender and the last person who circulated, and Figure 9 is an example of the email Figure 10 is an example of the flow of writing processing to the writing area in l's1. ．． Figure L is an example of an email in which the body area and writing area are limited to one each to simplify the management of the writing area, Figure 12 is an example of the configuration of the email header at that time, and Figure 13 is an example of an email circulating by a person who circulates the email. An example of the flow of mail reception processing by a substitute recipient or bypass processing of the recipient when the recipient is absent is shown. 1... Communication interface, 2... Sender/receiver identification section, 3... Mail storage section, 4... History/management information storage section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an e-mail system that circulates e-mails among a plurality of e-mail terminals interconnected via a communication network, the terminal transmitting the e-mail sends the e-mail,
First information is added to identify a first area that does not allow modification by the reader and a second area in which the reader can write, and the receiving terminal that received the email An e-mail system characterized in that content modification is allowed only in the second area of the e-mail. 2. The e-mail system according to claim 1, wherein the e-mail receiving terminal displays the first area and the second area of the e-mail in a distinguishable manner. 3. When the e-mail receiving terminal writes a message in the second area, the first information defines the first area and the message writing part as a first area. 3. The e-mail system according to claim 1, wherein the e-mail method is characterized in that: 4. The e-mail system according to claim 3, wherein the receiving terminal associates confirmation stamp information for confirming receipt by the recipient with the message and stores it in the e-mail. 5. In the e-mail system according to claim 1, the e-mail sending terminal adds to the e-mail a list of people who have circulated it, and the e-mail receiving terminal adds information on a list of people who are circulating it to the e-mail, and the e-mail receiving terminal identifies the recipients. The identification code is checked against the above-mentioned circulation list information, and if the above-mentioned recipient does not correspond to the sender or the final circulation person of the above-mentioned e-mail, deletion of the e-mail requested by the above-mentioned recipient is not allowed. An e-mail method characterized by: 6. The e-mail system according to claim 1, wherein the e-mail sending terminal adds circulating person list information to the e-mail for identifying the circulating persons, and the e-mail receiving terminal adds circulating person list information to the e-mail to identify the recipients. The identification code of the e-mail is checked against the above-mentioned circulation person list information, and if the above-mentioned recipient is the circulation person himself/herself, the reception of the above-mentioned e-mail is acknowledged, and the information to confirm that the said recipient has received the e-mail is sent to the said recipient. An e-mail method that is characterized by being stored in the terminal. 7. The e-mail system according to claim 1, wherein the e-mail sending terminal adds a circulation order and circulating person list information for identifying the circulating persons to the e-mail, and the e-mail receiving terminal comprises: If the circulator shown in the circulator list information has previously specified a bypass for the receiving terminal, information to prove that the bypass designation process has been performed is added to the e-mail, and the circulator list An e-mail method characterized by sending to the next recipient indicated in the information. 8. The e-mail system according to claim 1, wherein the e-mail sending terminal adds circulation order and circulating person list information for identifying the circulating persons to the e-mail, and the e-mail receiving terminal comprises: An e-mail system characterized in that, when a circulator shown in the circulator list information specifies an agent in advance and instructs for identification, reception is permitted only if the recipient is the surrogate. 9. In the e-mail system according to claim 8, when the sending terminal adds information for specifying proxy recipient bypass to the e-mail according to the sender's instructions and sends the e-mail, The receiving terminal does not accept the e-mail even if the recipient is the agent himself/herself, adds information to the e-mail to prove that the agent recipient bypass designation process has been performed, and sends the e-mail to the list of people who circulated the e-mail. An e-mail method characterized by sending to the next recipient indicated in the information.