2012-12-01 12:14:57 +00:00
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<html newsdate="2012-12-04" type="newsletter">
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2012-12-01 12:14:57 +00:00
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<head>
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<title>FSFE Newsletter - December 2012</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>FSFE Newsletter - December 2012</h1>
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<h2>UK: Small and major steps towards more Free Software</h2>
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<p>On 7th November, several political candidates standing in the Manchester
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Central By-election participated in the <a
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href="http://manchester.openrightsgroup.org/2012/10/24/manchester-digital-debate">"Manchester
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Digital Debate"</a>, organised by our UK coordinator Sam Tuke and the Open
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Rights Group (ORG). The event is part of FSFE's "Ask Your Candidates" campaign, which
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aims to provide an opportunity to engage (local) politicians with digital
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concerns that they typically do not address.</p>
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<p>Besides these important steps at the local level, last month the UK
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government has released a new Open Standards policy. In future all UK
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Government bodies must comply with the Open Standards Principles or apply for
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an exemption.<a href="/news/2012/news-20121101-02.html">FSFE welcomed this
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step</a>, and particularly its strong Open Standards definition. It also
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includes another long-standing FSFE demand: to take into account the software exit costs.
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From now on, when UK government bodies buy a software solution, they
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have to consider in the price a calculation of what it will cost them to get out
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of this solution, in the future. This means that government bodies could not simply
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avoid buying Free Software solutions because they are locked into one
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particular vendor's proprietary file formats. FSFE president Karsten Gerloff <a
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href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2012/11/01/the-uks-new-open-standards-policy/">analysed
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the new policy in detail</a>.</p>
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<h2>Secure Boot: FSFE welcomes German Government's White Paper on "Secure
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Boot"</h2>
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<p>We want to make sure that you are in control of your computing. This
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control is, currently, restricted by "Secure Boot". On 19th November, as the
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first government, the German Ministry of the Interior <a
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href="http://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/Themen/OED_Verwaltung/Informationsgesellschaft/trusted_computing_eng.html">published
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a white paper about "Trusted Computing" and "Secure Boot"</a>. The white
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paper states that "device owners must be in complete control of (able to manage
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and monitor) all the trusted computing security systems of their devices." This
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has been one of FSFE's key demands from the beginning of the debate. The
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document continues that "delegating this control to third parties requires
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conscious and informed consent by the device owner".</p>
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<p>Another FSFE demand is also addressed by the government's white paper:
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Before purchasing a device, buyers must be informed concisely about the
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technical measures implemented in this device, as well as the specific usage
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restrictions and its consequences for the owner: "Trusted computing security
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systems must be deactivated (opt-in principle)" when devices are delivered.
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"Based on the necessary transparency with regard to technical features and
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content of trusted computing solutions, device owners must be able to make
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responsible decisions when it comes to product selection, start-up,
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configuration, operation and shut-down." And "Deactivation must also be
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possible later (opt- out function) and must not have any negative impact on the
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functioning of hard- and software that does not use trusted computing
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functions."</p>
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<p>Though all of what the German Government stated, should be self-evident,
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unfortunately it is not. FSFE will continue talking to other governments about
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this issue, to improve their understanding of the political and economic consequences
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of this technology.</p>
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<h2>German Cities: Two good news and a bad one</h2>
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2012-12-05 11:43:00 +00:00
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<p newsteaser="yes">First the bad news: The city of Freiburg has decided to switch back, from
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OpenOffice.org, to Microsoft Office. The study they based their decision on was
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published one week before the decision, <a
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href="/news/2012/news-20121116-01.html">which we and
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other Free Software organisations had criticised before</a>. Unfortunate news,
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but as IBM's Rob Weir <a
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href="http://www.robweir.com/blog/2012/11/a-tale-of-two-cities.html">wrote in
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his article</a> in the Free Software community we tend to look at the bad
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news, and forget about the good news.</p>
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2012-12-01 13:27:16 +00:00
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<p>So, some good news: on the one hand, <a
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href="http://www.it-muenchen-blog.de/2012/10/leipzig-auf-kurs-zum-freien-officepaket/">
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the City of Leipzig has just migrated 4200 working stations to OpenOffice
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(DE)</a>, and on the other hand, <a
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href="http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Linux-brings-over-EUR10-million-savings-for-Munich-1755802.html">Munich
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announced they are saving over 10 Million Euro</a> with Free Software. If you
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want to be updated with good news from the public administrations in Europe,
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the European Commission's <a
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href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/news/news">Join-up Portal</a> is a good
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place to check out.</p>
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<h2>Something completely different</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>LWN has a good summary of <a href="lwn.net/Articles/523537/">Karsten's
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talk "All watched over by machines of loving grace"</a>, which is about
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society, power, and control. Besides, Karsten <a
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href="http://joinup.ec.europa.eu/news/advocates-open-source-recommend-german-authorities-publish-code">recommended
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the German authorities to publish the code of mobile phone apps</a>.</li>
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<li>Our Finnish team coordinator Otto Kekäläinen and the Danish hacker Ole
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Tange <a href="/news/2012/news-20121112-01.html">received the 2012 Nordic
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Free Software Award</a>. With this recognition, the Swedish
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Association for Free Software and Free Culture (<a
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href="https://ffkp.se/">FFKP, Föreningen Fri Kultur och Programvara</a>)
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honours people and projects who have made important contributions to software
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freedom. Congratulations Otto!</li>
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<li>"Fuck you, this is my culture!". This statement ended Amelia
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Andersdotter's (Swedish Pirate Party) <a
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href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsoGMT49v_o">speech at the Internet
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Governance Forum</a> wearing a <a href="http://epfsug.eu/">European
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Parliament Free Software User Group (EPFSUG)</a> t-shirt.</li>
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<li>Matija Šuklje, Jürgen Kneissl, Peter Bubestinger and Martin Gollowitzer
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(all FSFE) <a href="http://sendungsarchiv.o94.at/get.php?id=094pr6519">were
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interviewed</a> by Radio Orange about Free Software, software patents and
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other connected topics. In 2010 Radio Orange <a
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href="/news/2010/news-20100324-01.html">was awarded with the German
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Document Freedom Award</a>, because they provide OGG Vorbis for all their
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radio shows.</li>
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<li>Also on software patents, Richard Stallman wrote an interesting <a
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href="http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/11/richard-stallman-software-patents">article
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on the WIRED</a>, suggesting to change the effect of patents: "We should
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legislate that developing, distributing, or running a program on generally
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used computing hardware does not constitute patent infringement."</li>
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<li>Former KDE president Aaron Seigo pleads to <a
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href="http://aseigo.blogspot.com.br/2012/11/ending-cults-of-personality-in-free.html">end
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the cults of personality in Free Software</a>.</li>
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<li>Mark Lindhout published the default Fellowship blog theme Pome on <a
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href="https://github.com/marklindhout/Pome">his Github account</a>, and
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invites everyone to contribute!</li>
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<li>Do you remember the time of the browser bundling? Or the <a
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href="http://fsfe.org/activities/ms-vs-eu/ms-vs-eu.en.html">Samba antitrust
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case</a>? You might also enjoy XKCD's <a href="https://xkcd.com/1118/">comic strip
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named "Microsoft"</a>.</li>
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<li>From the <a href="http://planet.fsfe.org">planet aggregation</a>: </li>
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<ul>
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<li>Looking for a self-made Christmas present for your grandmother? What
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about a one button audiobook player? Michael Clemens <a
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href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/clemens/2012/10/30/the-one-button-audiobook-player/">described
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how he build such a device</a> with a Raspberry Pi for his 90 year old
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Grandma.</li>
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2012-12-20 15:16:29 +00:00
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<li>FSF begins to accept scanned <a
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href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/fsf-to-begin-accepting-scanned-assignments-from-germany">copyright
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assignments</a> from Germany. [Update: Removed one link]</li>
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<li>Erik Albers wrote about <a
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href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/eal/2012/11/21/my-experience-with-ubuntu-running-on-a-nexus-7/">his
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experience with Ubuntu running on a Nexus 7</a> while he and Torsten
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Grote gave a Free Your Android workshop at SFSCON in Bolzano. Albert Dengg
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gave talks in Austria, and <a href="http://fsfe.org/events/">in our
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upcoming events</a> you will find upcoming <a
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href="http://freeyourandroid.org">Free Your Android</a> related
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events.</li>
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<li>Otto wrote about <a href="http://seravo.fi/2012/11/the-wow-effect">the
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WOW effect</a>, and a wishlist for future mobile devices while Henri
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Bergius wrote an extensive <a
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href="http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/jolla-sailfish/">blog post about Jolla's
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Sailfish OS"</a>.</li>
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<li>How to open computed tomography (CT) scan pictures (DICOM)? Our
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president, Karsten Gerloff, <a
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href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2012/11/26/broke-my-foot/">broke his
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foot</a> just for you to find out.</li>
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<li>What can you learn out of the Skolelinux pilot in Rhineland Palatinate?
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Guido Arnold <a
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href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2012/11/skolelinux-pilot-in-rhineland-palatinate-lessons-learned/">wrote
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a summary about Kurt Gramlich's</a> in English, so more people can learn
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what happened after the first euphoria and the reasons why the pilot may be
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considered a failure.</li>
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<li>There were several reports from events: Erik Albers organised the <a
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href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/eal/2012/11/15/free-society-conference-and-nordic-summit/">Free
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Your Android workshop during FSCONS</a>, where Fellow Bjarni Einarsson
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rescued an (almost) bricked phone. Ana wrote about <a
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href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/anaghz/2012/11/22/fscons-elation/">her high
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expectations to FSCONS</a> and how a perfect weekend looks like.</li>
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<li>Isabel Drost wrote <a
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href="http://blog.isabel-drost.de/index.php/archives/category/events-menu/apache-con">11
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reports about the ApacheCon Europe</a>,</li>
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<li>Mirko Böhm reported (in German) about the summit of Newthinking (<a
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href="http://creative-destruction.me/2012/11/16/son12-day-1-2/">day
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1</a>, and <a
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href="http://creative-destruction.me/2012/11/16/son12-day-2/">day 2</a>),
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and about <a
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href="https://netzpolitik.org/2012/nk12-produzent-und-konsument-im-netz/">
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our workshop at an event from the Green party about Internet
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Policy</a>.</li>
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<li>And finally, read <a
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href="http://leena.de/south-parks-genius-website-copyright-fail/">Leena
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Simon's blog post</a> to find out why South Park failed on copyright.</li>
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</ul>
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</ul>
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<h2>Get active: New year, new donations</h2>
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<p>It is the end of the year, and like <a
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href="http://wiki.fsfe.org/Fellows/reinhard">FSFE's financial officer
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Reinhard Müller</a> your editor would like to start 2013 with a good money
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buffer. So this month, please help us to fill our war chest:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>If you are not yet a Fellow, <a
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href="https://fellowship.fsfe.org/ams/join.php?ams=join">please join
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now</a> and support us with your donation.</li>
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<li>Check out our <a href="http://wiki.fsfe.org/SupportPrograms">support
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programs</a> to find out if the webshops you already use for your Christmas
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shopping are listed there, and install our plugins. (If you need some
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suggestions for books, take a look at your editor's <a
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href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=399">recommended books about Free
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Software</a>.</li>
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<li>And please convince your employer to <a
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href="/donate/donate.html">support us</a>, and join <a
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href="/donate/thankgnus.html">our list of donors</a>. (If you do not want
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to talk to your employer on your own, please <a
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href="/contact/contact.html">contact us</a>, and suggest whom we should
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talk to.)</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Thanks to all the <a href="http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join">Fellows</a> and
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<a href="donate/thankgnus.html">donors</a> who enable our work,<br/>
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<a href="/about/kirschner">Matthias Kirschner </a> - <a href="http://www.fsfe.org">FSFE</a></p>
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<p>-- <br />
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<a href="/index.html">Free Software Foundation Europe</a><br />
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<a href="/news/news.rss">FSFE News</a><br />
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<a href="/events/events.rss">Upcoming FSFE Events</a><br />
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<a href="http://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml">Fellowship Blog Aggregation</a><br />
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<a href="/contact/community.html">Free Software Discussions</a> </p>
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</body>
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<tags>
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<tag>newsletter</tag>
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<tag>Matthias Kirschner</tag>
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</tags>
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<timestamp>$Date: 2011-06-06 12:32:19 +0200 (Mon, 06 Jun 2011) $ $Author: mk $</timestamp>
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</html>
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<!--
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Local Variables: ***
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mode: xml ***
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End: ***
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-->
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