Is there anyway that I can prevent people from forwarding my emails? I run the advanced version of Windows 95. (No jokes, please). Outlook Express 5.0.
I am thinking in terms of some software available for download. I have never heard of such a thing, but maybe it is out there somewhere?
Nope, there’s nothing you can do. When I download your email, I’ve got a collection of bits that contains the header (information about the message) and the message itself–nothing else. If I want to copy those bits and send them to someone else, and my email program has the facility to do so, there’s nothing you can do to stop me. In fact, I can even copy & paste the text of your message to forward it.
Thanks ultrafilter. I suspected as much.
Note that anything you compose, even emails, are protected by national and international copyright laws. Anyone forwarding your emails without your permission can be sued. However, in order to get significant compensation you have to register your emails.
Just add on “Any copying or forwarding of this email without permission will result in civil prosecution under <insert approriate national copyright law here>”.
What you need is Microsoft Rights Management ! Now say thanks to Uncle Bill!
Of course, it all depends on everyone you send email to using Rights Management too, which is never going to happen. Sorry Uncle Bill!
Especially if they’re still using ‘advanced win95’ 
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There are some services that make forwarding an email difficult that are advertised as making it impossible. For instance, the email isn’t SENT but instead stored on a server and a link (or, say, a <img href='http://server.com/myemail.gif>) sent. When the email is viewed the copy on the server is deleted. Thus if someone isn’t ready it’s likely they won’t save a copy. However, it’s probable there’ll be a cashed copy, or they can printscreen.
It’s obviously impossible to make an email completely uncopyable, as if they can SEE it, they can in some way make a copy, even if only typing it out again.
The other option is the legal route.
I have an agreement between my “email friends” that we remove the previous address before forwarding and that we always use BCC, (Blind Carbon Copy).
I ask them if they don’t wish to comply, to remove me from their mail list.
It’s simple to remove the previous address but I think most people don’t know how.
BTW galen, my wife’s 1997 IBM Aptiva still uses W-95 that came on it. 
Ah, shucks galen, consider yourself hugged because that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard today and I’m still snickering.
Maybe what you want is to not have your friends forward your e-mail address everytime they forward your e-mail? You could use an anonymous remailer.
My ocmpany uses Microsoft Rights Management http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/addon/default.asp
It’s pretty cool stuff. Use it for any email you don’t want forwarded or to bite you in the ass (like a dirty joke or blowing off steam about your boss to a cow-orker)
Um, You’re welcome?
I should think it is pretty trivial to disable the cache and the printscreen features. At the same time I am sure it is pretty easy for someone who can write software to get around this.
In my case the answer is pretty simple: Send me an email which requires installing special software or anything else special and I am not going to read it. I refuse to cooperate.
Never downloaded anything from Acrobat and read a .pdf file???
If you can explain to me how PDF can prevent me from copying and forwarding the file then your post will make sense to me.
Yes, I have Acrobat and I use it to make PDF files all the time. I hate it when people send me finished documents in WORD. I consider WORD to be a format to process and create the document but very bad for presenting a finished document. So, yes, I use Acrobat. I also use an email client and an operating system. What I am saying is I am not going to cooperate with schemes which will limit what I can do with an email I receive. And when I am saying “I am not going to cooperate” I mean “I am not going to cooperate unless I have a very good reason to do it”. If I stand to lose a lot of money then I would consider doing it. If the terrorists put a gun to my head and told me to do it, then I would probably do it.
Acrobat is fairly standard. I assume he means he’s not going to download takeovermycomputeranddisableprintscreenhonestimnotavirus.exe from zippy23.com to read an ‘email’.
Wrong Uncle Bill 
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Mine has much more money. And lawyers, lots of lawyers. So just mind what you’re doing with that name.
And guns. Don’t forget the trifecta: Guns, money, and lawyers.
Anyway, anything that exists on my machine can be copied, analysed, and treated as I see fit. Ain’t much you can do about it, neither.
I’m not bragging. This is why I stifle laughs when the MPAA, RIAA, and others try to get digital rights management shoved through. If I can see it or hear it, I can copy it indefinitely. A prison term could stop me, but just how many people do you want to be imprisoned based on laws the RIAA, MPAA, and Disney bought and paid for?
True. . . up to a point. If MS develops a file format which can only be “opened” by software which enforces the limitations then most people are SOL until hackers can get around the limitation. Most people will not bother as it is not worth their effort
In the very near future, it won’t be a matter of cooperation. New versions of Windows will likely include DRM (digital rights management) which enforces exactly this kind of copy protection. You won’t be able to copy, forward or even take screenshots because your computer won’t cooperate with you. These systems will balkanize the net because DRM systems won’t exchange content with non-DRM systems. You can choose to run a system without DRM (Apple will follow suit, but Linux will resist) but you will have far fewer functions than you have now because all the people you now communicate with will upgrade blindly and be locked into DRM.
What a remarkably dumb idea, in a way. I realize that many (heck, probably most) people read and send email from only one location. However, given that I move around a lot, I download emails to both a laptop and a desktop, and occasionally will use a webmail service to check in from someone’s machine altogether. There is not always a printer handy to print a copy right away. Designing an email such that I see it once and it’s gone unless I take some extra measure to preserve it is going to trigger a request that people fax me only. How else should I have a “paper trail” of correspondence in the event it becomes necessary for legal reasons, etc. ?
Perhaps I should have gone into more depth about why I think it’s a dumb idea. I decided the fact that it didn’t work was sufficient
