297 řádky
14 KiB
HTML
297 řádky
14 KiB
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<html newsdate="2009-05-11" type="newsletter">
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<title>FSFE Newsletter - April 2009</title>
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<h1>FSFE Newsletter - April 2009</h1>
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<p>Do you know one thing that makes Free Software sustainable? You! Yes, it
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is your support that allows us to operate across the whole Europe and at
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different levels to promote and defend Free Software principles.
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Amongst other things, your donations made possible the planning and
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coordination of the Second European Licensing and Legal Workshop. They
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allowed the Austrian team to participate in many public events across
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the whole Austria and to continue having an intern in our Zurich office.</p>
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<p>We finished the accounting work for the last year and we published our
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financial figures. Take a look at them to see how we use your donations.</p>
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<p>I want to conclude by introducing a couple of changes in the newsletter.
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I hope they will improve your 'reading experience' of FSFE's ongoing
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work. First, "In the spotlight" is a new section where I will treat in more
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details a selected news. Second, since time passes by and the events
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pile up, I will pick-up a noteworthy item from the past and mention it
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under the "It happened in the past" section.</p>
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<p align="right">Giacomo Poderi</p>
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<h3>Table of Contents</h3>
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<ol>
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<li><a href="#LegalWorkshop" name="TOCLegalWorkshop">Second European Licensing and Legal Workshop for Free Software, 23-24 April</a></li>
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<li><a href="#WIPO" name="TOCWIPO">FSFE at WIPO's 3rd Session of the Committee on Development and Intellectual Property</a></li>
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<li><a href="#EPOamicus" name="TOCEPOamicus">FSFE amicus brief to European Patent Office on Software Patents</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Interview" name="TOCInterview">The Fellowship interviews: Myriam Schweingruber</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Intern" name="TOCIntern">FSFE welcomes Thomas Jensch, new intern for Zurich office</a></li>
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<li><a href="#GAvote" name="TOCGAvote">Fellowship vote for GA seats - the election is ongoing</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Services" name="TOCServices">Renewal of Fellowship services</a></li>
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<li><a href="#PDFreaders" name="TOCPDFreaders">PDFreaders.org enjoys continued success</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Austria" name="TOCAustria">FSFE invades Austria</a></li>
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<strong>In the spotlight</strong>
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<li><a href="#Figures" name="TOCFigures">FSFE - Income and Expense 2008</a></li>
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<strong>It happened in the past</strong>
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<li><a href="#Smartcards" name="TOCSmartcards">The first Fellowship Smartcards</a></li>
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<strong>Upcoming events</strong>
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<li><a href="#eLiberatica" name="TOCeLiberatica">FSFE at eLiberatica 2009, 22-23 May</a></li>
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</ol>
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<h3><a name="LegalWorkshop"/>Second European Licensing and Legal Workshop for Free Software, 23-24 April</h3>
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<p>The second European Licensing and Legal Workshop was a resounding
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success. On 23 and 24 April, legal experts and interested parties in
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Free Software licensing gathered in Amsterdam for a vibrant event
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organised by our Freedom Task Force (FTF) and sponsored by Bender von
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Haller Dragsted, Blackduck, Canonical, HP and Mozilla. Harald Welte,
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from gplviolations.org, says from his blog: "I have to admit that it was
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a big surprise to me that the constructive atmosphere and the quality of
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the presentations, panels and hallway discussions has even improved beyond
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the already exceptional level last year". Indeed, the conference was
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considerably bigger than in 2008, and planning is already under way for
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an enhanced and even larger event in 2010.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/press-release/2009q1/000233.html">Press release</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h3><a name="WIPO"/>FSFE at WIPO's 3rd Session of the Committee on Development and Intellectual Property</h3>
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<p>From 27 April to 1 May, FSFE's President Georg Greve, participated to
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the "Committee on Development and Intellectual Property: Third
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Session" (CDIP/3) at World Intellectual Property Organization
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(WIPO). In preparation to that meeting, Georg published "The case for
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a World Innovation Policy Organisation", reflecting on the current
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significance of the WIPO Development Agenda and how it should relate
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to international issues such as the one of software patents. Issues
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that Georg raised at CDIP/3 as three formal intervention on FSFE's behalf
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throughout the week.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=321">https://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=321</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=327">https://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=327</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=333">https://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=333</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=340">https://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=340</a></li>
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<li><a href="/activities/wipo/">https://fsfe.org/activities/wipo/</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h3><a name="EPOamicus"/>FSFE amicus brief to European Patent Office on Software Patents</h3>
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<p>Along with many other organisations, FSFE submitted its comments to
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the European Patent Office (EPO) on the patentability of software,
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responding to a request of the Enlarged Board of Appeal. In the
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submission, FSFE explains why software patents are harmful for
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innovation, competition and economy, based also on the rationale of
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the work done at WIPO's Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP)
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in March.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="/news/2009/news-20090430-01.html">https://fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090430-01.html</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=302">https://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=302</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h3><a name="Interview"/>The Fellowship interviews: Myriam Schweingruber</h3>
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<p>Myriam Schweingruber is the Fellow interviewed for "The smallest unit
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of freedom" series. Myriam is a devoted Free Software advocate with a
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flair for convincing people. Having worked as a translator, a school
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teacher and a pharmacist, Myriam is quite experienced in the art of
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communication, and gives a clear impression of trustworthiness. In the
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interview she tells us about her experiences with Whilhelm Tux,
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Amarok, KDE, FSFE and Free Software in general.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=46">https://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=46</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h3><a name="Intern"/>FSFE welcomes Thomas Jensch, new intern for Zurich office</h3>
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<p>We are happy to welcome Thomas Jensch as our new intern in the Zurich
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office. Thomas is a political science student at the University of
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Leipzig in Germany. His job during the next 8 months will be to help
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us in administrative work and to support the President in coordinating
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his various activities. Once again, welcome on board Thomas!</p>
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<p>Doing an internship at FSFE is an exciting and formative experience.
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If you want to be our next intern, take a look at:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="/about/jobs/internship.html">https://fsfe.org/about/jobs/internship.html</a></li></ul>
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<h3><a name="GAvote"/>Fellowship vote for GA seats - the election is ongoing</h3>
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<p>The voting period for the first seat at our General Assembly (GA)
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reserved to a Fellow is approaching. The four candidates: Torsten
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Grote, Jan-Hendrik Peters, Michel Roche, and Björn Schiessle presented
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themselves to the whole Fellowship. You can get to know them by
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visiting their blogs and our wiki election page. The approaching and
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important dates are: the entire month of May as the voting period and
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the 1 June 2009, when we will announce the results. All our Fellows
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already received an e-mail containing information and instructions on
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the voting procedures.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/election09">https://wiki.fsfe.org/election09</a></li>
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<li><a href="/news/2009/news-20090411-01.html">https://fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090411-01.html</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h3><a name="Services"/>Renewal of Fellowship services</h3>
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<p>The work on the new Fellowship technological infrastructure is going
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on. Last month, we completed the migration from the old Fellowship
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portal to the new site <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">https://my.fsfe.org/donate</a> (for more
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information about moving your data: <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/OldPortal">https://wiki.fsfe.org/OldPortal</a>)
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and we activated the new home page, registration procedure and account
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management pages. You can find an overview of the active Fellowship
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services at <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/FellowshipServices">https://wiki.fsfe.org/FellowshipServices</a>
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and stay informed about their status following the "Fellowship News" blog at:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="/news/index.html">https://fsfe.org/news</a></li>
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<li><a href="/news/news.en.rss">https://fsfe.org/news/news.en.rss</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h3><a name="PDFreaders"/>PDFreaders.org enjoys continued success</h3>
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<p>PDFreaders.org was launched less than six months ago, as a Fellowship
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project to promote Free Software PDF readers for all the major
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platforms. Since then, the website has become a formidable success,
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gaining the attention of several vendors of proprietary PDF readers,
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including Adobe, as well as much positive response from the community.</p>
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<p>April saw yet another increase in traffic after an RSA security
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conference, where Mikko Hypponen research officer at F-Secure referred
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to PDFreaders.org in light of the recently disclosed vulnerabilities
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present in Adobe Reader. Our volunteers managed to translate
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PDFreaders.org into 15 languages and our Fellows are continuously
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updating it. New readers have recently been added and a major update
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concerning Open Standard is approaching!</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10224449-83.html">http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10224449-83.html</a></li>
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<li><a href="http://pdfreaders.org">http://pdfreaders.org</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h3><a name="Austria"/>FSFE invades Austria</h3>
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<p>Continuing the "Linuxwochen Österreich Tour" started in March, our
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Austrian team spread Free Software principles to major Austrian events
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for the whole April. The tour consists of six events, four of which in
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April, for a total of nine days booth and six talks. Peter
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Bubestinger, Deputy Coordinator Austria, held five of the speeches and
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David Ayer, Austrian team member, held the one in Linz. The themes of
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the talks ranged from Free Software in schools and education to future
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scenarios on Free Software usage. These are the April stages of the
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tour: "FLOSStag 2009", 15 April, Danube University Krems; "Linuxwochen
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Wien", 16-18 April, Vienna; "Liwoli 2009", 23-25 April, University for
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Art and Industrial Design Linz; "LinuxTage", 25 April, Graz.</p>
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<h2>In the spotlight</h2>
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<h3><a name="Figures"/>FSFE - Income and Expense 2008</h3>
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<p>We recently published our financial figures for 2008. This has been an
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intense year and as the previous ones it confirmed the growth of our
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work's breadth. With 245,000 and 68,000 EUR respectively, donations
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and the Fellowship programme confirmed to be vital to the sustainment
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of our organisation. Once more, we would like to express our gratitude
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to anyone who decided to donate or to become a Fellow. This allows us
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to run our projects and to work for the diffusion and defence of Free
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Software. With a total income of 383,221 EUR and an expense of 303,419
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EUR, 2008 concluded with a very positive balance and this will allow
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us to empower our organisation as we were planning to do since some
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time now.</p>
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<p>To manage and coordinate the ever growing base of employees and
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volunteers working for us at local, national and international level
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we decided to look for an Executive Director as a full-time
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employee. A similar figure will also be hired to coordinate the
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Fellowship programme and to overview our German area, where most of
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the Fellows and our donors come from. The activities of our Freedom
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Task Force (FTF) will also be strengthened and finally, we will
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investigate the possibilities to extend our policy work on EU and UN
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levels. We hope you will continue to follow and to support us!</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="/about/funds/2008.html">https://fsfe.org/about/funds/2008.html</a></li>
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</ul>
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<p>Relevant links:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="/donate/thankgnus.html">https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus.html</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">https://my.fsfe.org/donate</a></li>
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<li><a href="/news/2009/news-20090414-01.html">https://fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20090414-01.html</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h2>It happened in the past</h2>
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<h3><a name="Smartcards"/>The first Fellowship Smartcards</h3>
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<p>It was only April 2005 when we prepared and delivered the first batch
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of 250 Fellowship Smartcards. Since then, many more people joined the
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Fellowship and many more Smartcards have been delivered.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/TechDocs/CardHowtos">https://wiki.fsfe.org/TechDocs/CardHowtos</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h2>Upcoming events</h2>
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<h3><a name="eLiberatica"/>FSFE at eLiberatica 2009, 22-23 May</h3>
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<p>Georg will talk about the challenges of the traditional
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standardisation system, the role of patenting and the mechanisms that
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allow us to cope with legal issues at eLiberatica 2009. One of the
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biggest events discussing Free Software in Eastern Europe.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="http://www.eliberatica.ro/2009/index">http://www.eliberatica.ro/2009/index</a></li>
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</ul>
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<p>You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on</p>
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<a href="/news/newsletter.html">https://fsfe.org/news/newsletter.html</a>
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<p>You can join the Fellowship and find how to support us on</p>
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<a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">https://my.fsfe.org/donate</a>
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<a href="/contribute/contribute.html">https://fsfe.org/contribute/contribute.html</a>
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<p>Copyright (C) FSFE. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire
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article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.</p>
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