Email was invented for public use in the 1990s, with the advent of webmail and email clients. Prior to this, email was primarily used by academics, researchers, and government agencies connected to the ARPANET network.

Dr Shiva's proprietary inbox/outbox system was used in and documented 1979 and was dubbed 'email'....so its really a semantical arguement. 

Ray Tomlinson's system did not have inbox/outbox BCc, Cc, memos, drafts etc...it was a simple text messenger. 

Brandolini law does not apply here. Lol