FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION RULING REFUSES COMPUSERVE REQUEST

CompuServe Offer to Provide Candidates With Free Accounts Denied

COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 23, 1996 -- The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has
issued an advisory opinion on CompuServe Incorporated's request for ruling
submitted in January. CompuServe sought to offer free access to the
Internet, the World Wide Web and the CompuServeR Information Service to
all federal political candidates during the election year. The FEC ruled
against allowing candidates to accept the free offer, although CompuServe
was not in violation of the law by making the offer. The FEC ruled that as
federal election law now stands, free access must be considered an in-kind
donation by a corporation to candidates, which is not permissible under
Section 441b of the Federal Election Campaign Act.

In November 1995, CompuServe introduced its "Election ConnectionSM" online
area. This included extensive news and campaign coverage, political debate
areas, candidate information and more. As part of this program, CompuServe
announced plans to offer the free memberships for the campaign year to all
candidates of any (or no) party affiliation to encourage direct candidate
communication with the electorate and online discussions and debates.
Before this offer was accepted by any candidate, however, CompuServe
learned of news reports in which an FEC representative was quoted
questioning whether acceptance of this free access might violate the ban
on corporate donations to candidates.

"We are very disappointed that the FEC's ruling was against offering free
accounts," said Dennis D. Matteucci, CompuServe president, Online
Services. "We had hoped to broaden the exchange of ideas and further
political discourse among the online members of the electorate by helping
candidates of all parties at the national and state level go online. At
present, only a small percentage of candidates have an Internet presence,
while millions of voters regularly go online for information gathering and
discussion.

"With our extensive network and tools like the Home Page Wizard web page
design software, CompuServe is well equipped to help open the channels of
online communication in the political arena," Matteucci continued. "We do
believe we have at least opened the door to discussions of how the law
should be applied to the emerging world of cyberspace. These discussions
will continue."

Political discussion areas on CompuServe include the Issues Forum (GO
ISSUES), the Political Debate Forum (GO POLITICS), Town Hall (GO
TOWNHALL), The Week's Issue (GO NEWPEO), the White House Forum (GO
WHITEHOUSE), the Democratic Forum (GO DEMOCRATS), the Republican Forum (GO
REPUBLICAN), the Concord Coalition Forum (GO CONCORD) and online
Congressional Tracking (GO BUDGET).

CompuServe (NASDAQ:CSRV) is an H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) company.

Founded in 1955, H&R Block is a diversified services company and the
world's leading tax preparation and online information services. H&R Block
Tax Services handled almost one in every seven returns filed with the
Internal Revenue Service in 1995, serving 17.1 million taxpayers in more
than 9,500 offices worldwide. CompuServe operates the most comprehensive
online network in the world, providing services to more than 950 corporate
accounts and more than 4.7 million users in more than 185 countries.
 
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