System and method for management of persistent and irrefutable instant messages

摘要

Instant messages may be made persistent and irrefutably associated with a sender to provide a secure and accountable environment which may be used for commercial activities. Instant messaging clients are executed at user devices of a first and second user. A data message is transmitted from the instant messaging client at the user device of the first user to the instant messaging client at the user device of the second user, the data message having a content portion and at least one associated attribute which may be cryptographically generated. The availability of at least one user-selectable function by the instant messaging client at the user device of the second user is controllable, based on the at least one associated attribute. The attribute plus any additional first user attributes may be used to irrefutably bind the identity of the first user to the message information content to form an irrevocable message.