Patent ID: 7224778

Claim:
A computer implemented method of operating a subscription manager to manage incoming machine readable messages arriving at a communications network having multiple remote user recipients, the method comprising the operations of: independent of whether incoming messages have originated from a message originator pre-approved by the incoming messages' addressees, the subscription manager determining if incoming messages are subscription type messages, subscription type messages comprising recurring messages multicast to a plurality of addressees who have previously communicated to originators of the recurring messages their intent to receive such messages; responsive to finding that a given message is a subscription type message, the given message having at least one addressee, performing operations comprising: determining whether the given message originated from a subscription source pre-approved by the given message's addressee for sending subscribed-to messages to the given message's addressee; if the given message originated from a subscription source pre-approved by the given message's addressee, forwarding the given message to the given message's addressee; if the given message did not originate from a subscription source pre-approved by the given message's addressee, blocking delivery of the given message to the given message's addressee.