Server device and method for providing e-mail service, and information recording medium recording a program for realizing the service

1. An e-mail server device which manages user information including at least one user, the user information specifying an e-mail address as a public e-mail address owned by the at least one user and another e-mail address as an individual e-mail address owned by the at least one user, and delivers an e-mail to the at least one user specified in the user information, said device comprising:

a receiver which receives e-mails;

a transfer unit which transfers, in a case where an address of the received e-mail is not managed by the e-mail server device but it managed by another e-mail server device, the received e-mail to the another e-mail server device;

an inquiry unit which inquires of the at least one user, in a case where the address of the received e-mail is the public e-mail address owned by the user specified in the user information managed by the e-mail server device, whether to accept the received e-mail to be delivered from its addresser;

a notification unit which notifies the addresser of the received e-mail that there is no user owning the address of the received e-mail, in a case where the at least one user does not accept the received e-mail to be delivered from the addresser as a result of the inquiry;

a delivery unit which delivers the received e-mail to the user owning the public e-mail address, in a case where a delivery condition for delivering the e-mail is satisfied;

an individual-address selector which selects an individual e-mail address managed by said e-mail address server, in association with the addresser of the e-mail and the user owning the public e-mail address corresponding to the addressee of the received e-mail, in a case where the received e-mail is accepted to be delivered from the addresser as a result of the inquiry;

an individual address informer which informs the addresser of the e-mail about the selected individual e-mail address; and

an individual address recorder which records information representing the user as a target user owning the public e-mail address of the received e-mail and information representing the addresser as an informed-addresser, in association with the selected-individual e-mail address, and

wherein the delivery condition is satisfied, in a case where the address of the received e-mail is the individual e-mail address recorded on said individual address recorder and information representing the addresser of the e-mail is recorded as an informed addresser, thereby the delivery unit delivers the e-mail to the user as the target user.

2. The e-mail server device according to claim 1 , further comprising

an allowed-addresser recorder which records information representing the addresser of the received e-mail as an allowed addresser in association with the public e-mail address, in a case where the at least one user accepts the received e-mail to be delivered from the addresser as a result of the inquiry, and

wherein the delivery condition is satisfied, in a case where the information representing the addresser of the received e-mail is recorded as the allowed addresser on said allowed-addresser recorder in association with a public e-mail address of the address of the e-mail.

3. The e-mail server device according to claim 1 , wherein:

said individual address selector selects, as an individual e-mail address, an e-mail address generated by converting characters of the public e-mail address of the received email; and

the original public e-mail address is generated from the individual e-mail address as a resultant address of the character conversion, thereby achieving character reverse conversion of the individual e-mail address.

4. The e-mail server device according to claim 3 , wherein a predetermined character string is added in a user name of the public e-mail address, thereby achieving the character conversion of the public e-mail address.

5. The e-mail server device according to claim 1 , further comprising

a rewriting unit which rewrites the public e-mail address owned by the addresser specified in the e-mail into the individual e-mail address owned by the addresser recorded in association with the addresser and the addressee, in a case where rewriting conditions that

(i) the addresser of the received e-mail is the public e-mail address owned by the user specified in the user information managed by said e-mail server device, and that

(ii) the individual address recorder records information representing the addressee of the received e-mail as an informed addresser and information representing the user owning the public e-mail address as a target user, in association with a corresponding individual e-mail address,

are satisfied, and

wherein said transfer unit transfers an e-mail having the address rewritten by the rewriter instead of the received e-mail, in a case where the above rewriting conditions are satisfied.

6. A method for providing an e-mail service for managing information regarding at least one user and his/her e-mail address and for sending e-mails to the at least one user, the user information specifying an e-mail address as a public e-mail address owned by the at least one user and another e-mail address as an individual e-mail address owned by the at least one user, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving an e-mail;

transferring the received e-mail to another e-mail server device, in a case where an address of the received e-mail is not managed by said method for managing the e-mail service:

inquiring of the at least one user whether to accept the received e-mail to be delivered, in a case where the address of the received e-mail is a public e-mail address of owned by the at least one user which is managed by said method for providing e-mail service;

informing, in a case where the received e-mail is not accepted to be delivered from an addresser of the e-mail as a result of inquiring of the user, the user of the received e-mail that there is no user owning the address of the received e-mail;

delivering the received e-mail to a user owning the public e-mail address, in a case where a delivery condition for delivering the received e-mail is satisfied;

selecting the individual e-mail address managed by said method for providing an email service, in association with the user owning the public e-mail address corresponding to the addressee of the received e-mail and with the addresser of the received e-mail, in a case where the received e-mail is accented to be delivered from the addresser as a result of the inquiring;

informing the addresser of the received e-mail about the selected individual e-mail address; and

recording information representing the user as a target user owning the public e-mail address corresponding to the addressee of the received e-mail and information representing the addresser as an informed-addresser which is informed about the individual e-mail address, and

wherein the delivery condition is satisfied, in a case where the addressee of the received e-mail is the individual e-mail address recorded at said individual address recording step and where information representing the addresser of the received e-mail is recorded as an informed-addresser, thereby the e-mail is delivered to the user specified as the target user in the recorded information at said delivering step.

7. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising the step of

recording information representing the addresser of the received e-mail as an allowed addresser, in association with the public e-mail address, in a case where e-mails are accepted to be delivered from the addresser of the received e-mail as a result of the inquiry, and

wherein the delivery condition is satisfied, in a case where information specifying the addresser of the received e-mail is recorded as an allowed addresser in association with the public e-mail address corresponding to the addressee of the received e-mail at said the information recording step.

8. The method according to claim 6 , wherein:

a resultant address created by converting a character code of the public e-mail address corresponding to the addressee of the received e-mail is selected as an individual e-mail address at said individual-address selecting step; and

the original public e-mail address is generated from the individual e-mail address as a resultant address of the character conversion, thereby achieving character reverse conversion of the individual e-mail address.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the character conversion is so performed that a resultant address including a predetermined character string in a user name of the public e-mail address is obtained.

10. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising the step of

rewriting the public e-mail address of the addresser specified in the e-mail into the individual e-mail address of the addresser recorded in association with the addresser and the addressee, in a case where rewriting conditions that

(i) the addresser of the received e-mail is the public e-mail address owned by the user specified in the user information managed by said e-mail sever device, and that

(ii) information representing the addressee of the received e-mail as an informed addresser and information representing the user owning the public e-mail address as a target user are recorded at said individual-address recording step, in association with a corresponding individual e-mail address, are satisfied, and

wherein an e-mail having the address rewritten by the rewriter instead of the received e-mail is transferred at said transferring step, in a case where the above rewriting conditions are satisfied.

11. A computer readable information recording medium which records a program for controlling a computer to function as said e-mail server device according to claim 1 .

12. The computer readable information recording medium according to claim 11 , wherein said information recording medium is a computer disk, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magneto-optical disk, a digital video disk, a magnetic tape, or a semiconductor memory.

13. A computer readable information recording medium which records a program for controlling a computer to execute the method for providing an e-mail service, according to claim 6 .