Electronic mail providers and personal computer (PC) postage vendors are lining up to form agreements with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) that would permit them to issue electronic postmarks (EPMs) introduced only this spring. The EPMs have been developed to validate, through a click-to-look feature in any postmarked e-mail message, the time of delivery by the sender and the time of receipt by the recipient. The EPM will serve as a date-time group that would be legally valid in a court—as is the postmark on a first-class letter. USPS officials say that they expect it to lead to a dramatic expansion in the use of e-mail for the transfer of legal documents, such as contracts, that require receipt-return validation when mailed first class.
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