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210 lines
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HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
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<html newsdate="2026-06-08">
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>Decades-long victory, bold Apple survey findings, legal workshop success & our 50th podcast episode</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>Digital Sovereignty needs Free Software</h1>
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<p>
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In the last weeks, we got the green light to intervene
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against Apple before the European Court of Justice for the second time
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(!) while the European Commission has included the “Public Money? Public
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Code!” principle in its Technological Sovereignty
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Package. And stay tuned! A new European consortium will be launching soon, and we are part of it!
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</p>
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<figure>
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<img src="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/4b/bf/c68b9f6f939bdd245bfec7648994.png" alt="Collage featuring the FSFE logo, a picture of a German government building with the sentence "Give Free Software a change", and an image of kids at a theater"/>
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</figure>
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<p>This month is starting with good news: the European Commission
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included the Free Software Foundation Europe’s “Public Money? Public
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Code!” principle in the newly released Technological Sovereignty
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Package, which also contains the new "Open Source Strategy". If
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implemented, it could mark a paradigm shift towards making publicly
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financed software available as Free Software. But it is too early to
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lean back: <a href="/news/2026/news-20260603-01.html">Its success
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will depend on binding rules, long-term funding, and meaningful civil
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society involvement</a>.
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</p>
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<p>However, not all public administrations think the same: England’s
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National Health Service (NHS England) has made most of its public source
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code repositories private by default, based on concerns that public code
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repositories could be scanned by AI systems to identify vulnerabilities.
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At the FSFE we were clear about it: <a href="/news/2026/news-20260504-01.html">NHS England
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should not hide public code behind closed doors</a>. De-publishing does
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not make code unseen, nor does it remove existing copies, and it is not
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an effective security measure. Instead, it removes a fundamental pillar
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for security: the ability of independent experts, researchers, and other
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public bodies to inspect, reuse, and improve the code, and to report on
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security issues.</p>
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<p>We called on the Free Software community to push that decision back
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by signing <a href="https://keepthingsopen.com/">an open letter to NHS
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England, </a>calling on them to keep their code open. The community’s
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response was strong, with more than 500 additional signatures in the
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hours after our call. Shortly afterwards, the UK Government Digital
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Service issued new guidance making clear that public bodies should keep
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code public by default.</p>
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<p>Digital sovereignty through Free Software was also the topic of our
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latest Software Freedom Podcast episode, in which Bonnie and Johannes talk with
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Petteri from X-Road about the current challenges
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for Free Software projects in public administrations. <a href="/news/podcast/2026/episode-51.html">Listen to it!</a></p>
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<p>You may already know that despite
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the need for digital sovereignty in Europe, <a href="/news/2024/news-20240719-01.html">funding
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for European projects such as the Next Generation Internet Zero (NGI0)
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programme was cut</a>. We're glad to share some good news on this
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front: we recently announced a new European consortium for a resilient,
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home-grown technology European ecosystem: the Restack project.
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Operating under Horizon Europe, <a href="/news/2026/news-20260528-01.html">the FSFE
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is a partner of this cascade funding programme, designed to retain the
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strength of the NGI Zero approach</a>. Our role will be to provide legal
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and licensing support for potentially over 200 Free Software projects
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and assist their growth into part of a wider European digital
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commons.</p>
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<h3>Defending interoperability in Europe</h3>
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<blockquote>
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<p>“With industry interests well represented by several interveners on
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the other side, the FSFE is there to ensure that civil society is
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equally heard — and that the court can decide with the full picture
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before it"</p><cite>Dr. Martin Husovec, the lawyer representing FSFE in
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the case T-359/25 - Apple against the European Commission</cite>
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</blockquote>
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<p>In a landmark development for Software Freedom in Europe,
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the Free Software Foundation Europe has been granted permission
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to intervene at the Court of Justice of the European Union in the case
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T-359/25 - Apple against the European Commission. This intervention aims
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to defend interoperability and Software Freedom in Europe and it is the
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second time the FSFE is intervening in a litigation at the CJEU in
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regards to the DMA and Apple. <a href="/activities/apple-litigation/apple-litigation.html">The
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previous case (T-1080/23</a>) concerns Apple’s broader challenge to its
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DMA obligations and its designation as gatekeeper, while this case
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(T-359/25) focuses specifically on interoperability under Article 6(7)
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DMA and the legality of the European Commission’s decision specifying
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how Apple must implement those obligations in practice. </p>
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<p>Following our work on the Digital Markets Act, we participated in the
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<a href="https://scidaproject.com/2025/10/23/call-for-abstracts-scida-conference-on-shaping-competition-in-the-digital-age-towards-best-practices/">SCiDA
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Conference</a> in Düsseldorf, a leading academic event focused on
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competition in digital markets. There, the FSFE was invited to present
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its work on interoperability in Android during a plenary session,
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highlighting the relevance of our work within ongoing policy and
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academic discussions. </p>
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<p>The conference brought together senior representatives from
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competition authorities across Europe as well as members of the European
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Commission's DMA enforcement team. The conference provided an excellent
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opportunity to strengthen connections with key stakeholders and to
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further raise awareness of the FSFE's policy work on digital markets and
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users' freedom to control their devices.</p>
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<p>Up for learning more about the DMA? We were
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invited for <a href="https://media.fsfe.org/w/j1CDP2zKnH1Px5fKKnvsvMç">episode 5 of the
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"DMA Vox Populi" podcast about the DMA review</a>. There, Dario
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discusses what the European Commission got right, where it fell short,
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and what must come next for software freedom and interoperability in
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Europe. </p>
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<h3>Youth Hacking 4 Freedom 2026</h3>
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<p>The 2026 edition of <a href="https://yh4f.org">Youth
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Hacking 4 Freedom</a> is reaching its peak. The programming period wraps up at
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the end of this month, and while participants can finally catch their
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breath, the jury will be getting to work evaluating their projects. In
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October, we will meet the 6 winners of this edition at the Award
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Ceremony weekend in Brussels. </p>
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<p>For the fifth edition of YH4F we had over 80 participants from 21
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countries! 😮 We can't wait to see what they have developed. And we are already planning
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for the next edition, so stay tuned!</p>
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<h3>From the stages: Ada, Digital Sovereignty, PIWO and more!</h3>
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<p>May has been a busy month! Our Polish local group took part in
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P.I.W.O. (the Poznań Free Software Event), where volunteers ran a booth
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promoting Free Software. And while the name might make us think of free
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"piwo" (that's beer in Polish), what participants got was free pizza.</p>
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<p>In Berlin our group
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organized a Linux presentation day in which
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people could try Linux laptops and get all their questions answered
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about them.</p>
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<p>
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Moreover, besides attending SCIDA, we participated in a panel about
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the DMA in Brussels. During the CPDP conference, we sat in the <a href="https://www.cpdpconferences.org/panels/it-takes-two-to-tango-public-and-private-enforcement-of-the-digital-markets-act">panel</a>
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<a href="https://www.cpdpconferences.org/panels/it-takes-two-to-tango-public-and-private-enforcement-of-the-digital-markets-act">entitled
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"It takes two to tango: Public and private enforcement of the Digital
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Markets Act</a>" at the CPDP conference, where we presented our work on
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the DMA enforcement, including our <a href="/activities/apple-litigation/apple-litigation.html">litigation
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against Apple at the European Union Court of Justice</a>.
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</p>
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<p>Digital sovereignty was
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also the topic in a lecture series in
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Regensburg, where, after watching the animated movie “Ada &
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Zangemann”, we took part in a discussion about this topic.
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</p>
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<div class="standout-text-bggreen">
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<p><strong>The FSFE is turning 25! And we want to celebrate it with
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you!</strong><br/>Join us on 18 and 19 July in Cracow for a weekend
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full of Free Software with talks, networking, and of course, a cake! Wanna
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know more? Write us: <a href="mailto:contact@fsfe.org">contact@fsfe.org</a></p>
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</div>
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<p>Ada was also present at
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several events: we had a movie screening and
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a kids' workshop at the Tübingen Digital Freedom Days, where we also ran
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a booth. In Utrecht, at the NLUUG conference, our booth had a focus on
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Ada & Zangemann too. But the highlight this month was in Italy: our
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Italian community celebrated three years with Ada at an event in Pesaro
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with more than 50 primary school kids… and ice cream for everyone!
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</p>
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<figure>
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<img src="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/4f/8c/6a015701428517ec6156ea71c486.jpg" alt=" Kids audience seated in an auditorium facing a stage with a screen displaying a Ada illustrated movie "/>
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</figure>
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<p>One last recommendation if you are a German speaker (also good for
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practising your German skills 😉): <a href="https://engineeringkiosk.dev/podcast/episode/270-ada-und-zangemann-ein-märchen-über-software-skateboards-und-himbeereis-mit-matthias-kirschner-von-der-fsfe/?pkn=shortlink">listen
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to the latest episode of the Engineering Kiosk podcast, featuring Ada
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& Zangemann!</a> There Matthias talks with Andy and Wolfgang about a
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lot if interesting background details of this illustrated story. </p>
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<h3>Your support helps us move our work forward</h3>
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<p>We may be behind the wheel, but you’re the ones keeping us moving
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forward. You can also <a href="/donate/donate.html">support us</a>, <a href="/contribute/contribute.html">contribute to our work</a>, and <a href="/about/groups.html">join our community</a>. Are you using social
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media? If so, do not forget to follow us there! You can also follow the
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FSFE news in your <a href="/news/news.rss">RSS Reader</a>.
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</p>
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<p>Your editor,<br/>
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Ana </p>
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</body>
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<sidebar promo="about-fsfe"/>
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<followup>donate</followup>
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<tags>
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<tag key="newsletter">Newsletter</tag>
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<tag key="front-page"/>
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<tag key="highlights">highlights</tag>
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</tags>
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<discussion href="https://mastodon.social/deck/@fsfe/116719202770316716"/>
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<image url="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/4b/bf/c68b9f6f939bdd245bfec7648994.png" alt="Collage featuring the FSFE logo, a picture of a German government building with the sentence "Give Free Software a change", and an image of kids at a theater"/>
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<translator/>
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</html>
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