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HTML
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<title>Our Work in 2011</title>
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<body>
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<h1>Our Work in 2011</h1>
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<p>FSFE turned ten this year. How things have changed! Today, Free
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Software is not just mainstream, it's the market leader in many
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areas, whether on web servers, mobile devices, in the embedded sector,
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or in high-performance computing. The advantages of Free Software have
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proved so compelling that today, any electronic device you pick up is
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likely to have some Free Software inside it.</p>
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<p>But have we really won? Many of these devices are still locked down, so we
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can't change the software on them if we want to. Our mobile phones may
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run Free Software, but many of them still lock us into services
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controlled by someone else. Free Software may be everywhere, but it is
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still constantly under threat from software patents, from outlandish
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interpretations of copyright, and from the brutal forces of a software
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market built around selling licenses for proprietary programs. We have
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a long way to go until software freedom becomes the default on every
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computer.</p>
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<p>In this letter, you'll find a short overview of some of the things we
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in FSFE -- Fellows, volunteers, staff -- worked on this year. There
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is a lot more than will fit these pages. Please see our website for a
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full overview of our work in 2011, and lots of links.</p>
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<h2>Freedom in a world of networked services</h2>
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<p>Telling people about Free Software is one of FSFE's main reason to
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exist. Software freedom concerns everyone, and this year, we've
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probably managed to reach a broader set of people through conferences
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and events than ever before. FSFE people spoke at meetings as diverse
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as LinuxCon Europe in Prague (see <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2011/10/28/free-software-policy-issues-at-linuxcon-europe/">Karsten's blog</a> for his intervention), a <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/samtuke/?p=215">Feminist Festival in Manchester
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(UK)</a>, and a <a href="http://piana.eu/korea_fosscon">legal conference in
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Seoul, South Korea</a>. In Germany, we
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continued a series of monthly radio interviews on one of the major
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nationwide stations.</p>
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<p>At many of these events, our topic was power and control in a world of
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networked services. How do we stay in control of our computing when it
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doesn't happen on our own computers anymore? Can we build services
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that are convenient, accessible from anywhere, independent from the
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devices we use -- and still keep our freedom? Two years ago, this
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looked like a distant dream. Now, our <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/CloudComputing">list of distributed projects</a>
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working towards precisely these goals has grown to impressive
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length. We helped to boost the movement towards distributed systems by
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explaining the idea to a wider audience, and by organising conference
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tracks on the topic, for example at this year's <a
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href="http://2011.rmll.info/?lang=en">RMLL</a> in Strasbourg,
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France. We also highlighted the topic in connection with the
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distributed <a href="http://yacy.net/en/">YaCy</a> search engine, creating
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quite a <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/alessandro.polvani/2011/11/30/yacy-gets-an-extraordinary-press-coverage/">splash around the world</a>.</p>
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<h2>Patent warfare goes nuclear</h2>
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<p><a href="/activities/swpat/swpat.html">Software patents
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</a>came back on the agenda in a big way this year. The
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discussion was all about how software patents are used to hurt
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competition in the software market. There were several huge battles
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around patent portfolios, with the stakes increasing each time, as
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Microsoft, Apple and others chose software patents as the most
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important stick to beat their competitors with. Free Software is
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constantly at risk of being caught in the middle and trampled over. So
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we hoisted the Free Software flag, rode into battle, and fought as
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hard as we could. We got in touch with competition authorities in the
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US and Germany, and <a href="/activities/swpat/novell-cptn.html">explained to them</a> why Free Software is crucial for
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competition in the software market, and how patents hurt Free
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Software. <a href="/news/2011/news-20110420-01.html">We won the first round</a>, when the authorities prevented
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Microsoft from getting hold of Novell's patent portfolio. We are still
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waiting for a decision in the <a href="/activities/swpat/nortel.html">similarly structured sale of Nortel's
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patents</a> to a consortium led by Apple, with Microsoft on board again.
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</p>
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<p>Patents weren't the only thing that kept our legal and policy people
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busy. We helped to fend off a legal challenge to the GPL's fundamental
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principles in Germany, and participated in another <a
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href="/news/2011/news-20110525-01.html">hearing</a> in the
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still-ongoing <a
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href="/activities/ms-vs-eu/ms-vs-eu.html">antitrust case of the EU
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vs Microsoft</a>. We provided the
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European Commission with <a href="/news/2011/news-20111206-01.html">input on how best to spend 80 billion Euro</a> in
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research and development funding, talked to several members of the
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European Parliament about software patents, and supported the build-up
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of a Free Software user group in the parliament. We helped some
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countries such as the UK to come up with better ways of buying
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software for the public sector, and highlighted how the European
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Commission was doing it precisely wrong when it again decided to <a
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href="/news/2010/news-20101207-01.html">lock
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itself into Microsoft's products</a> for many years to come. The
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<a href="/activities/pdfreaders/index.html">PDFreaders</a>
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campaign managed to remove advertisements for proprietary
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software from a quarter of all <a
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href="/activities/pdfreaders/buglist.html">reported
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websites</a>.</p>
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<p>Our <a href="/activities/ftf/ftf.html">Legal Department</a>
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organised another edition of the highly
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successful annual workshop for legal experts on Free Software. This
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year, we were invited to organise a similar <a
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href="http://piana.eu/korea_fosscon">event in Seoul</a>, South
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Korea, which provided a lot of new angles and fresh inspiration.</p>
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<h2>New hands on deck</h2>
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<p>We were happy to welcome <a href="http://matija.suklje.name/">Matija
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Šuklje</a>, who took over coordination of our Legal Department from
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Shane Coughlan.
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Henrik Sandklef, a
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GNU
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hacker and university teacher, replaced
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Fernanda Weiden as FSFE's
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Vice
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President. Bernhard Reiter handed over his role as coordinator
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of the
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German team to <a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/torsten.grote/">Torsten Grote</a>.
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<a href="/about/tuke/tuke.html">Sam Tuke</a> took on the task
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of building up
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FSFE's activities in the UK.</p>
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<h2>Together, we'll make a difference</h2>
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<p>If we managed to handle such a wide range of complex challenges, it was
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thanks to you, our supporters, donors, and volunteers. Without you, none of this
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work would be possible. Thank you! </p>
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<p>Looking ahead, there are many challenges for Free Software in 2012. Microsoft
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is trying to extend its stranglehold to the hardware market with an initiative
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called "<a
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href="http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot/statement">SecureBoot</a>". We will stand up for our freedom to install Free
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Software. The Netherlands are currently locking everyone in their education
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system into a proprietary platform, and <a
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href="/activities/nledu/nledu.html">we are campaigning
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hard </a>to unlock education there. Public software procurement shows no signs
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of fixing itself, so
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we will educate authorities and push for better rules and practices.</p>
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<p>For all this and more, we will need your help. We are currently working hard
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to make it even easier to participate in FSFE's work, for example in the
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<a href="/freesoftware/education/education.html">education
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team</a> and the newly launched policy team.</p>
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<p>All this work <a
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href="/about/funds/funds.html">costs
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money</a>. In 2011 we were able to complete our campaigns
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and appointments with a budget of just 287,000 Euro. In 2012 we
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need to do even more. If we receive enough new donations we would
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be able to hire two part time employees (~43k), and intensify our
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work on public procurement (~20k) This would require an increased
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budget of 364,000 Euro, and allow FSFE to have a significantly
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greater impact. To secure and increase our work, we need to raise
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103.500 Euro by the end of January. If we reach this goal, we will
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be financed for the whole of 2012. Every contribution,
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including yours, will help to fill the gap.</p>
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<p>Together with you we will continue to make a real difference for Free
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Software in 2012 and beyond. Thank you for joining us in this struggle.</p>
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<p>I wish you wonderful holidays and a very happy New Year!</p>
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<p>With best regards,</p>
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<p>Karsten Gerloff</p>
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</body>
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<author id="gerloff" />
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</html>
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