Windows email & pgp

[Joe Turner <turner@telecheck.com>]

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Yes, yet another WinSock E-mail program...

Lately, I have been trying out several mail programs for Windows, 
but have been sorely disappointed by their functionality. I was tired
of the annoying "please-send-me-money-now" windows popping up, programs 
that simply didn't work or worse, didn't work very well.
 
I have used many different mail programs on several platforms, and have 
yet to find one that I *really* like.  Elm would be the closest at this 
point, but it is annoying and time consuming to have to go through the 
pains of extracting a mail message, verifying signatures, etc.  As a
result, I have decided to write a SMPT mail program for Windows 3.x and
Windows NT (with WinSock) with PGP incorporated within it.

I felt that this is a great opportunity to spread the gospel about an 
undeniably practical use for encryption for the masses (sound familiar?),
somewhat in the vein that PGP was created by Zimmerman, and would like to 
solicit comments and/or suggestions for what to put in this program.  
Additionally, any guidance as to what steps I should take to obtain the
appropriate licenses, etc., to legally integrate PGP into a program of 
this type would be greatly appreciated.

Here are my specifications/criteria:
 
 - Perhaps most importantly, it should work.  It should: send, receive, 
   and forward mail messages; allow the user to delete and organize mail 
   messages into folder files; support signature files; support kill 
   files; pipe messages to a user-written application (like setting an 
   mail alias under UNIX).  Will support RFC821 and RFC822.  Forward 
   files must also be supported.

 - PGP will be included into the mail program itself, provided I can get 
   the appropriate permissions to legally do so.  The mail program will 
   automatically check for PGP keyblocks, encrypted messages, and 
   signatures.  Signatures will be automatically checked (unless 
   unfeasible) and the user alerted when a signature does not match.  
   The user will be prompted when keyblocks are in messages, to see if 
   the user would want to add them to his/her keyring.
 
 - List management.  Due to the high volume of the cypherpunks list, and 
   other lists, I have noticed that I have sometimes been neglected in 
   answering personal e-mail simply because it gets lost in the noise.  If 
   you are on a list, and configure it (i.e., signify the cypherpunks@toad.com 
   as a mail-list), every message from that list will be marked as such.  
   Mail from a List, but addressed to you from another user (the list is CC:d)
   will be marked accordingly too.  The idea here is to quickly highlight 
   messages that courtesy dictate you respond.  I was also thinking of a
   groupie/worship mode, but I think this is just too much.

 - Remailer.  This will take some more thought, but I would like to give
   the mail program the ability to forward messages and stomping on the 
   return address, etc., essentially creating a one way remailer.  Future 
   versions will support more, but this is a good start.

I believe that all of the above mentioned topics have been touched on 
before, but would like suggestions for this implementation.

This windows mail program will be released in the same spirit as PGP, 
free for academic and non-commercial use;  I will not beg for money 
(but thank-you's and admiration will be accepted as will helpful 
criticisms).  

I have already started hashing out the framework, but I will guestimate that
it will be roughly 15 weeks before anything usable is produced.  Beta testers
anyone?


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-- 
Joe N. Turner		Telecheck International
turner@telecheck.com    5251 Westheimer, PO BOX 4659, Houston, TX 77210-4659
compu$erv: 73301,1654	(800) 888-4922  *   (713) 439-6597
Finger for me PGP KEY; PGP encrypted mail very welcome.