Traveler – issues with “prevent copy” feature.

This one was new to me.  Mainly because it has been a long time that I used the “prevent copy” feature.  Know what it is?  If not, that’s fine.  It typically lurks in the hallways of big businesses.

When sending an email, you can check “prevent copying”.  This prevents the person from forwarding or printing the message.

Warren checked the box and sent me an email.  On my client I can read it fine, but in Traveler you get this:

To me, it is acting as designed.  But there is more function on a blackberry where you can read the message but it is prefixed with [You are not allowed to copy this message]

IBM technote here.

November 10, 2011 · Filed under Traveler

7 Comments »

  1. Brian Green Said,

    November 10, 2011 @ 7:28 pm

    Agree with you.
    I’m guessing the iOS app for Lotus Traveler will read it?

  2. Chris Miller Said,

    November 10, 2011 @ 7:47 pm

    Acting as designed I agree. How many really use that feature is the bigger question

  3. pmooneynet Said,

    November 10, 2011 @ 8:23 pm

    @Brian. Nope, the only app for Traveler is companion, so if it was listed as encrypted and prevent copy there is a chance (I haven’t tested).

    @Chris. I can imagine very few, but I would guess it is an important “very few”. These types of features were invented to keep the high security, monster companies happy. They are to this day the lifeblood of IBM’s revenue.

    Personally, I don’t think I have ever used it

  4. Andy Stewart Said,

    November 11, 2011 @ 10:04 am

    I’ve always thought the feature is a bit of a waste of time as it’s easy enough to set the $KeepPrivate field to null (or take a screen shot / photo).

  5. Cormac McCarthy Said,

    November 11, 2011 @ 4:06 pm

    Interesting. Though I agree with @Andy. It’s not a particularly sophisticated function as a toggle of $KeepPrivate removes it and many end users request an agent to this automatically, or at least the option from the Actions Menu. Anyone who does use it should be made aware it’s probably not adding anything.

  6. Toby Haward Said,

    November 13, 2011 @ 5:35 am

    Thanks for this news, I have made some installations with this feature.

  7. Traveler and prevent copying. Resolved. Said,

    December 19, 2011 @ 5:23 pm

    [...] interested in Traveler may remember this post a month ago.  Prevent copying is “acting as designed” and preventing messages from [...]

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