Xu Xilong, an intern in a Beijing-based law firm, has submitted the case to a local court in Beijing's Chaoyang District, accusing the firm of breaking a contract.

The court accepted the case and is following through with the required legal procedures. The date of the court proceedings is pending.

Sources from 263.net said that they were ready for the legal battle ahead.

Xu's action has drawn wide support within the Internet community, with favourable messages flooding bulletin boards affiliated with the nation's top Internet portals.

"Cheer up, Xu Xilong. You have ventilated our anger. 263 treats us like meat on the chopping block," said Qiu Shi, who uses 263.net's free e-mail service.

Indeed, 263.net is not the first to charge e-mail users. Other web sites like Sina, 163 and 21cn have joined the bandwagon since early last year.

But the charge fees only drew moderate criticism as it included offers for an upgraded e-mail account, while maintaining free e-mail service with a smaller storage capacity.

Braving a huge wave of complaints, 263.net announced last week it would shut down all of its free e-mail accounts. More than 20 million users will be affected.

However, legal analysts said the likelihood of Xu winning his case is very uncertain.

Xu Jiali, chief lawyer for the Beijing Long'an Law Firm, said that free e-mail service is provided only by 263.net and there is no contract between the company and net users for the service.

"Net users do not take any responsibility when using the free e-mail service. Without such a balance between duties and rights, Xu cannot say that 263.net breached the contract. There is no contract at all," said Xu.

Already, a number of netizens who brought Sina.com to court last year for similar charges have lost their cases.

Nearly 10,000 users have signed up for 263.net's paid e-mail service via their mobile phone in the last few days, while about 2,000 did so via a home service. The company expected newly signed-up users to hit 1 million when it announced it would close the free e-mail accounts.

(China Daily March 26, 2002)