The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is launching a campaign to sensibilize the public to the fact that government websites are advertising for proprietary software, each time that they redirect you to a downloading interface for a non-free PDFreader while you have to read a PDF file.
[FIXME: that's one long sentence. Break up, make shorter, focus on core of campaign: we're hunting for places where governments advertise for non-free software.]What would you think about a sign on the highway saying "You need a Rolls Royce to drive on this road. Contact your Rolls Royce dealer for a gratis test drive -- Your Government". Governments do exactly this with PDF reader software.
[FIXME: replace w/ campaign page language]Launched by the Fellowship of FSFE, pdfreaders.org is a site providing information about Free Software PDF readers for all major operating systems. It clearly shows that there are many programs to read and write PDF documents. Grounding on the conviction that governments should not advertise for one private product, in this case a non-free PDF reader presented as the only possibility to read PDF documents when there are several alternatives. By doing so, governmental institutions give indeed an economical advantage to the advertised product over its competitors.
FSFE invites everybody to search through governmental websites for advertising and to notify them to the FSFE.We also invite you to sign the petition for governmental websites without advertisement for non-free PDFreaders.
[FIXME: language way too complicated. Cut length by 50%, use simple words.]This collection of governmental URL will take place from September, 13th to October 17th 2010. It takes the form of a contest in which people notifying the most advertisements will recieve a price at the end of October.
[FIXME: make punchier. "The great PDFreaders bug hunt will start ..." etc]We hope to see you soon on our hunter list