Since email existed from the origins of IBM's CMS (later part of VM) in the 1960s, it is passing strange that your US courts have not struck down what is clearly a vexatious case at the first instance.
I am sure you would be able to find many individuals in the USA who were actual users of email long before 1982, indeed from the early 1970s.
The French Minitel system which started in 1978 and the UK's Prestel system (from 1979) also included an email system. Indeed Prestel also had interfaces to other systems such as Telex.
All these systems were more than a simple terminal to terminal communication system but depended on a central store which held messages sent until a subscriber signed to collect their email at al.
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Origins of email
Since email existed from the origins of IBM's CMS (later part of VM) in the 1960s, it is passing strange that your US courts have not struck down what is clearly a vexatious case at the first instance.
I am sure you would be able to find many individuals in the USA who were actual users of email long before 1982, indeed from the early 1970s.
The French Minitel system which started in 1978 and the UK's Prestel system (from 1979) also included an email system. Indeed Prestel also had interfaces to other systems such as Telex.
All these systems were more than a simple terminal to terminal communication system but depended on a central store which held messages sent until a subscriber signed to collect their email at al.