<p>We decided to start as close to the people as possible: in their
pockets. Your mobile phone is the most personal of your devices. It
knows who you talk to, where you are, and what your plans are. So it is
important that you have full control over what it does.</p>
<p>That is where our <ahref="http://fsfe.org/campaigns/android/android.en.html">Free Your Android</a> campaign comes in. We organise
workshops to help people install operating systems on their phones
that don't tie them to a particular company or service provider, and
respect their privacy. At the end of the day participants don't just
have a better phone, but something even more important: The knowledge
that they can truly control the technology they use.</p>
<p>Torsten Grote, a former Fellowship representative, and new staffer
Erik Albers have run or supported nine workshops since August,
from Spain and Sweden through Germany and Italy to Slovenia and
Kosovo, with over 100 participants. <ahref="mailto:android@lists.fsfe.org">Get in touch</a> if you would like to
become a trainer and/or organise a workshop near you.</p>
<h4>Your freedom to install Free Software</h4>
<p>If you cannot install whatever software you choose on a computer, you
don't really own it. Many PCs and mobile devices that went on sale
from late 2012 come with a mechanism called "SecureBoot" ("Restricted
Boot" would be a more appropriate name) that would prevent you from
doing exactly that. We <ahref="http://fsfe.org/campaigns/generalpurposecomputing/secure-boot-analysis.en.html">accompanied this process,</a> and have made our
demands clear: Device owners must have complete and sole control of
their devices. This and other demands were echoed in a <ahref="http://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/Themen/OED_Verwaltung/Informationsgesellschaft/trusted_computing_eng.html">white paper</a> by Germany's federal government. We will continue to raise this issue with
politicians, consumer protection groups and anyone else who can help
<p>We also overhauled our <ahref="http://drm.info">drm.info</a> website with fresh information about
digital restrictions management (DRM). Fellow Anna Morris and our campaign
manager Sam Tuke both spoke to the BBC: <ahref="http://download.fsfe.org/audio/20120320-bbc5-interview-anna-morris.ogg">Anna</a> about a conference for
women in Free Software that she helped to organise and <ahref="blogs.fsfe.org/samtuke/%3Fp%3D255">Sam</a> about teaching
kids how to program.</p>
<h4>Unlock digital handcuffs - use Open Standards</h4>
<p>This year's <ahref="http://www.documentfreedom.org/">Document Freedom Day</a> was the most successful yet of our
annual campaigns for <ahref="http://fsfe.org/projects/os/os.en.html">Open Standards</a>. Volunteers organised 54 events in
23 countries. Proprietary file formats are like digital handcuffs --
so we sent out 100 info packages to politicians and public figures,
each containing a letter and a set of handcuffs.</p>
<p>In other countries, too, government procurement was a hot issue this
year. We helped the <ahref="http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2012/06/04/common-sense-in-the-basque-country/">Basque Country in Spain to make a rule</a> that
programs developed with public funds should be published as Free
Software. The governments of <ahref="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/news/italy-instructs-public-administrations-consider-using-open-source">Italy</a> and <ahref="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/news/french-guideline-favours-use-free-and-open-source">France</a> told their public bodies
to prefer Free Software.</p>
<p>Our general counsel Carlo Piana and president Karsten Gerloff helped the European Parliament to <ahref="http://opensource.com/government/12/7/helping-european-parliament-release-its-own-free-software">release some Free Software of its own</a>, and
answered legal and practical questions from the Parliament's IT
team.</p>
<blockquote><p>The software should become available by mid-2013. At the same
time, we <ahref="http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/it-business/3346719/free-software-foundation-urges-eu-parliament-staff-to-reject-microsoft-bribe/">warned the Parliament's administration</a> that they were compromising staff politically by offering them gratis licenses to
<p>Our <ahref="https://fsfe.org/activities/ftf/ftf.en.html">legal team</a> helped more than 60 Free Software developers and
projects to resolve licensing questions and other legal problems. In
three "Hacking for Compliance" workshops, we trained volunteers to
analyse and report embedded devices for GPL violations, so that
the gpl-violations.org project could pursue them. Our General Counsel Carlo Piana and Legal Coordinator Matija Šuklje supported the Free Your Android campaign by making it clear that <ahref="https://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20121106-01.en.html">flashing your phone does not void your warranty</a>.</p>
value. Some companies are mislabeling their software to take
advantage, promising the user freedoms that they do not deliver. FSFE
will help users make informed choices to preserve their freedom.</li>
</ul>
<h2id="support">Support FSFE</h2>
<p>We ask you to help us tackle these challenges head-on. FSFE is financed through your
donations. As an individual, please<ahref="https://fellowship.fsfe.org/">join the Fellowship</a>. As a company, please <ahref="http://fsfe.org/donate">donate to
FSFE</a>. Join the many <aHref="http://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.en.html">individuals and companies</a> who support our work, and help keep us independent.
Together, we can build a better society for all. </p>
<p>Donations to FSFE are tax-deductible in Germany, Switzerland and the
Netherlands. Less than 20% of our budget is spent on overhead costs,
and we are looking to further reduce this figure as we grow and