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1) Every "feature" of Outlook Express assumes that everyone using
email uses Outlook Express, I recommend your daughter drop that (trap
straight from the deepest levels of hell) lousy bit of
vendor-lockin-ware and use something more functional, like Thunderbird.
2) Thunderbird already has excellent email encryption support through
the Enigmail extension, which uses GPG to encrypt/decrypt and
sign/verify emails transparently.  It works beautifully, and it's
completely open technology.  I signed this message using the Enigmail
plugin as an example, and it took all of 2 mouse clicks (OK, it took 4
more when I first set up Enigmail, but that only needs to happen once).
3) What you experienced has nothing to do with the real DRM, it's a MS
Passport "service", and it will NEVER be available on a non-windows
platform (MS views most Passport "services" as strategic lockin
resources).

Victor Odhner wrote:

> My daughter was sending my wife an email message about a sensitive
> subject. She saw a button labeled "Confidential" in MS Outlook, and
> decided that was appropriate.
>
> OK, so my wife receives the message on her Win98 box with
> Thunderbird and can't open the message. There is a link explaining
> stuff she has to install, but it will only install on Win2k or above.
>
> So she forwards it to me on my XP box. First, I install the basic
> infrastructure to handle DRM; then a plug-in for IE6 so that it can
> be used as a viewer for DRM'ed content (registered under .rpmsg
> content).
>
> Then, on opening it up, I had to authenticate with my wife's MS
> Passport account. You must be OK to read the "confidential" message
> if you have an MS Passport account (the Mark of the Beast?). If I'd
> been on a local MS network I think there was some provision that I
> could have authenticated locally. So I don't see that the
> authentication proved anything except that we were In With Bill[TM].
>
> Hopefully this silliness won't catch on. My daughter now knows
> better. I presume there won't be a DRM plug-in for Thunderbird
> anytime soon, nor one that can be installed on a Pentium 166 under
> Win98. Will the DRM stuff be operable under OS X, or is it totally
> closed technology?
>
> My wife and her sister tried out PGP e-mail encryption about six
> years ago, I think. (A) It worked fine, on much older machines, and
> (B) the users had full control. But I guess those points were both
> bad things, eh? ;-)
>
> Vic
>
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