On August 30th, 1982, 29 years ago, 16-year old V. A. Shiva
copyrighted “EMAIL” along with the GUI we still use today with
the fields “To: From: Cc: Bcc: Subject: Reply, Reply All,
Forward” and Email body and attachment. “When I first heard the
word ‘electronic mail,’ I literally felt it was sending
electricity through paper. Those two words juxtaposed together
in 1978 were absolutely new,” says Shiva. While many claim to
have “invented email” the issue isn’t just one of semantics.
With electronic messaging systems in place, Shiva is responsible
for having transformed what was known as office mail into the
very first email system. “That is what I developed, starting in
1978, as a 14-year old, for which in 1981 I was awarded
recognition by the Westinghouse Science Awards for innovation,
and in 1982 the First US Copyright for EMAIL,” he writes. “The
guys before me we’re involved in text messaging. Messages sent
from one computer to another computer. Before that Tom Van Vleck
was the first to send a message with