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244 行
12 KiB
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
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<html newsdate="2014-09-04" type="newsletter">
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>FSFE Newsletter - September 2014</title>
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</head>
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<body microformats="h-entry">
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<h1 class="p-name">FSFE Newsletter – September 2014</h1>
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<h2>An Introduction to Free Software and the liberation of cyberspace</h2>
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<p>The freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of
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association, and privacy are essential preconditions for a Free Society. If it
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lacks one of those freedoms, it is difficult to maintain the others. As a
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society, it is important to defend those freedoms, especially in light of
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fundamental changes such as the one introduced by the ubiquity of computers.
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Such changes can threaten old freedoms and can create the need for new ones. So
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now software freedom is crucial to distribute and balance power in society. The
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FSFE is convinced that a free society needs the freedoms which only Free
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Software can offer. That is, why we advocate Free Software.</p>
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<p>In 2010, we wrote the article <a
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href="/freesoftware/society/democracy.html">"Democracy requires Free
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Software"</a>, explaining the message above to politicians at the ceremony at
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which the Theodor-Heuss medal was awarded to the FSFE. Thanks to FSFE's
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translators team, the article is meanwhile available in 15 languages, and is
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shared widely.</p>
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<p>Since last month, the message of the importance of Free Software is also
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featured in a short TEDx video <a
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href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/20140407-geneva-tedx-talk-free-software-free-society">"Introduction
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to Free Software and the liberation of cyberspace"</a> by Richard
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Stallman. It is a good way to make others aware of the significance of Free
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Software and why it matters. We need more people to understand why Free
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Software matters for a free society, as the following examples will show once
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again.</p>
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<h2>Slovakia still forcing users to use non-free software</h2>
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<p>In 2012 -- thanks to our former intern Martin Husovec -- the FSFE got
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engaged in <a href="/activities/eura-slovakia/eura-slovakia.html">a case against the
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Slovak Tax Authorities</a> together with the European Information Society
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Institute (EISi). As current FSFE intern <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/gera/2014/08/18/interesting-new-development-in-slovakia-fight-for-open-standards-continues-on-new-battleground/">
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Matej Gera writes in his blog</a> the problem of Slovak authorities forcing
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people to use non-free software is still ongoing: According to a new regulation
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in Slovakia, people who own agricultural land and want to sell it must make an
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offer on web page of the Ministry of Agriculture first. In order to submit an
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offer to the Ministry's web page, you need to use additional software. The
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software in question is proprietary and only available for Microsoft Windows,
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and it is the only way -- there is no paper form. If you would try to sell the
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land otherwise, you would break the law.</p>
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<p>This practice is not only unacceptable for Free Software users, but also
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unlawful itself in Slovakia. Since 2008, there is a binding regulation which
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forbids public authorities to request users to use a specific operating system.
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But the website of Ministry clearly does not comply with this rule. Now, the
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Slovak non-profit organisation EISi sent a letter to Ministry of Agriculture,
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calling to end this practice. If they will not comply with the letter and will
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not provide an interoperable solution until October, EISi will go to court to
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protect rights of Slovak software users.</p>
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<h2>Forced by Internet Service Provider to use certain hardware</h2>
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<p>It should go without saying that in our society, we should be able to freely
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choose technical devices for use in our homes like we choose the furniture or
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the books in our shelves. But besides authorities forcing us to to use non-free
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software, the FSFE currently also has to counter companies who want to force us
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to use certain computers in our home. In this case even one of the most
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important computers: the router, which should act as the gatekeeper between our
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private network and the public internet.</p>
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<p>In Germany, Internet service providers (ISPs) force their customers to use
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certain types of hardware in order to connect to the internet. Users of
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alternative devices, instead, are not able to connect to the internet by those
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ISPs. Together with other members of the Free Software community, our German
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team wrote several comments on this case and we entered talks with government
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agencies, corporations, and other organisations about compulsory routers.</p>
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<p>As this topic was mainly covered in Germany and in German, our German team
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member Max Mehl summarised <a href="/activities/routers/routers.html">this
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case</a> and made a <a href="/activities/routers/timeline.html">timeline of the
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most important events which lead to the current state</a>. We hope that with
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this information we can support other Free Software activists around the world,
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who might face similar problems.</p>
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<h2>Something completely different</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>FSFE has received television coverage twice in the last months. First, our
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legal coordinator Matija Šuklje was interviewed for the RTV Slovenia to point
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out the challenges for the newly appointed Information Commissioner of Slovenia
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related to cloud computing. Although they translated the FSFE into "Foundation
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for unrestricted programming", it was the first time for the FSFE to appear on
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Slovenian television. Thereafter, our Austrian coordinator Peter Bubestinger
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was in Mexico City at an archiving seminar, where he presented use cases for
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file-formats and long-term storage implemented in Free Software. The whole
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seminar was translated live into Spanish and broadcasted on Televison
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Educativa, a nation-wide education TV channel. They also uploaded the videos to
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youtube. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggCvJ0dzqx4">Peter's
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interview</a> can be found at 3h50m.</li>
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<li>Guido Arnold published some <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2014/08/free-software-in-education-news-july/">education
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news</a> covering a hacking contest to find security holes in Moodle, Free
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Software activists visiting schools in Slovakia, and other education related
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news.</li>
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<li>GNU community members and collaborators <a
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href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-hackers-discover-hacienda-government-surveillance-and-give-us-a-way-to-fight-back">have
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discovered details about a five-country government surveillance program
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codenamed HACIENDA</a>. Those same hackers have already worked out a Free
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Software countermeasure to thwart the program.</li>
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<li>Equipped with free GNU Radio software, a group of citizen scientists has
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contacted, controlled, and is attempting to recapture a 1970s-era satellite and
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bring it back into an orbit close to Earth. <a
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href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/free-software-in-space-gnu-radio-and-the-isee-3-spacecraft">The
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story behind this</a> demonstrates the importance of developing, maintaining,
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and promoting Free Software.</li>
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<li>From the <a href="https://planet.fsfe.org">planet aggregation</a>:</li>
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<ul>
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<li>Hugo Roy takes a look at what is featured in the European Court of
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Justice's <a href="https://hroy.eu/posts/whats-in-C-131_12/">"right to be
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forgotten"</a>. As he found it difficult to read, he wrote an alternate
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version of the directive. In another post he explains <a
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href="http://hroy.eu/posts/intro-defpubs/">why he helped the Free Software
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search engine developer Pablo Joubert to publish a defensive publication</a>
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around search engines making use of distributed hash tables.</li>
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<li>Our former intern Lucile Falgueyrac writes about why <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/lucile.falg/2014/08/11/ttip-policy-laundering-a-few-reasons-for-free-software-communities-to-get-angry/">TTIP
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& CETA entails a few reasons for Free Software advocates to get angry</a>.
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She argues that now, there is a good moment to send a strong message to the
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European Commission, the governments and states that policy laundering is not a
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legitimate way to legislate, and never should be.</li>
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<li>Our current intern Bela Seeger <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/seeger/2014/08/04/off-the-record-otr-messaging/">wrote
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a blog post about Off-The-Record (OTR) Messaging</a>, clarifying the meaning
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and technicalities of "off-the-record" (OTR) messaging and giving
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insight into the possibilities of implementing it in various devices. (You
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might have noticed in this edition, that current and former interns of FSFE are
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quite active!)</li>
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<li>Our Fellows participated at many events. Nikos Roussos <a
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href="http://www.roussos.cc/2014/08/13/fedora-flock-2014/">writes about his
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personal highlights of the Fedora Contributor Conference 2014</a>. He also
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mentioned the keynote about the Novena laptop project, which was <a
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href="http://lwn.net/Articles/608426/">summarised on LWN</a>. Mario Fux and
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Mirko Böhm report from the KDE meeting in Randa, with around 50 Free Software
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activists improving KDE. To get some impressions from the meeting, Mirko posted
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a <a
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href="http://creative-destruction.me/2014/08/28/the-kde-randa-video/">short
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video from the meeting in Switzerland</a>.</li>
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<li>André Ockers, who is currently updating and translating almost all FSFE
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materials into Dutch, <a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/ao/">started
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blogging</a>. He writes in English, Dutch, German, and French.</li>
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<li>Kevin Keijzer, also from the Netherlands, gives a <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/the_unconventional/2014/08/06/a-quick-overview-of-the-free-software-im-using/">detailed
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overview of Free Software he is using</a>.</li>
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<li>Daniel Pocock gives an update on WebRTC, explaining what works, what does not.</li>
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<li>Matija reports from his <a
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href="http://matija.suklje.name/the-jamendo-experiment-week-1">free music
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experiment</a>, highlighting his favourite artists who are using Creative
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Commons licenses for their music.</li>
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</ul>
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</ul>
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<h2>Get active: Spread the word on Software Freedom Day</h2>
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<p>On 20 September 2014, people around the world celebrate Free Software. The
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organisers from Software Freedom International announced that the registration
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for events is now open. They provide a <a
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href="http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/StartGuide">start guide</a> with tips
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and pointers for organising your own SFD team event. If you organise an event,
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or just want to spread information about Free Software on Software Freedom Day
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you can also:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a
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href="/contribute/spreadtheword.html#promo-material">order
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printed information materials from us</a></li>
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<li>send around <a
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href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/volunteers-translate-email-self-defense-guide-into-spanish-and-more">the
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FSF's e-mail self defence guide</a> which is now available in 11 languages. (At
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the "Freedom not Fear" demonstration our Berlin Fellowship group handed out a
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hundreds of printed leaflet of the German version, which you can also order
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from us.)</li>
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<li>share <a
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href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/20140407-geneva-tedx-talk-free-software-free-society">Richard
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Stallman's video</a>, or the <a
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href="/freesoftware/society/democracy.html">article mentioned
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above</a> to explain your friends Free Software.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Thanks to all the <a href="/contribute/contribute.html">volunteers</a>, <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">Fellows</a> and
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<a href="/donate/thankgnus.html">corporate donors</a> who enable our work,<br/>
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<a href="/about/people/kirschner">Matthias Kirschner </a> - <a href="/index.html">FSFE</a></p>
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<!--/e-content-->
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</body>
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<sidebar promo="about-fsfe"><!--
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<h3>FSFE News</h3>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="/news/">Press Releases</a></li>
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<li><a href="/news/newsletter.html">Newsletters Archive</a></li>
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<li><a href="/events/">Upcoming Events</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://planet.fsfe.org/">Planet Blogs</a></li>
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<li><a href="/about/contact.html#community">Free Software Discussions</a></li>
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</ul>
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--></sidebar>
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<author id="kirschner" />
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<date>
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<original content="2014-09-04" />
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</date>
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<followup>donate</followup>
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<tags>
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<tag key="newsletter"/>
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</tags>
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</html>
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