197 lines
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HTML
197 lines
11 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
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<html newsdate="2016-01-28" type="newsletter">
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<head>
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<title>FSFE Newsletter - February 2016</title>
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</head>
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<body class="newsletter article" microformats="h-entry" id="nl-201602">
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<h1 class="p-name">FSFE Newsletter - February 2016</h1>
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<h2 id="fsfe-turns-15">FSFE turns 15</h2>
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<p newsteaser="yes">In 2016, the Free Software Foundation Europe is looking forward towards
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an exciting year. This is the year when we are celebrating our 15th birthday
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and that will give us the chance to look back, to see and show how your
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support brought us here. However, we are also looking forward to mastering
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the challenges ahead.</p>
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<p>Since 2001, a lot has evolved for the good, including the changes
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that we could not think of <a href="http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2001q2/000002.html">once a small team of volunteers from different countries decided to come
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together in the Villa Vogelsang in Essen, Germany, and to found the Free
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Software Foundation Europe</a>. Since then, this initial team of activists
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grew together as friends, <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100510-01.en.html">FSFE
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received the Theodor Heuss Medal for our work for freedom in the information
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society</a>, we became an influential voice on national and European
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level, we have our third president in office and we became a European
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wide organisation with a permanent staff team. All of this would not have
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been possible without the help of you, our Fellows. Your advice, your
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support, your financial contribution, your local activities, your viral
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marketing, your campaign projects and all the time you dedicated to us
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are priceless and what made us strong. We are overwhelmed and happy that
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in 2016, the Free Software Foundation Europe is carried upon thousands
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of shoulders. This is why we dedicate this year to you, our Fellows,
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our community.</p>
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<p>We will come up with some activities and stories for you as a thank
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you during the year and in memory of our 15 years of existence. Let's
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start this with celebrating the I love Free Software day on February 14
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as colourfully as possible. <a href="https://fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/">Join
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us in spreading love towards Free Software and their developers</a>.
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And <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/FSFE%20summit">don't miss to already
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save the date from September 2nd to 4th</a> as a core event in 2016.
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This is the weekend we will organise our first FSFE summit - for and by you.
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More information will follow.</p>
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<h2 id="document-freedom-day-is-given-into-the-hands-of-the-digital-freedom-foundation">Document
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Freedom Day is given into the hands of the Digital Freedom Foundation</h2>
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<p>Half as old as the FSFE is our Document Freedom Day campaign, celebrated
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for the first time <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2008/news-20080220-01">in
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2008 to oppose the adoption of Microsoft's OOXML standard</a> - and then
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turned itself into an annual day to celebrate Open Standards. During the
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years we had hundreds events all over the globe, we have seen impressive
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artwork, inspiring comics and videos and we have seen political parties,
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companies and non-profit organisations using Document Freedom Day to let
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the world know about the power and freedom of interoperability.</p>
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<p>In 2016, however, <a href="http://documentfreedom.org/news/2016/news-20160126-01.html">the FSFE hands over Document Freedom Day campaign to the Digital Freedom Foundation</a>,
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the organisation that is best known for organising the Software Freedom
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Day. This way, the FSFE sees the potential to further broaden Document
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Freedom Day as the international day of Open Standards and to further
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decentralise the campaign's concept. This year, Document Freedom Day will
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be on March 30, 2016.</p>
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<h2 id="meps-vote-for-more-free-software-in-public-sector">MEPs vote for
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more Free Software in public sector</h2>
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<p>On 19 January, the European Parliament adopted in Plenary its
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own-initiative report "Towards a Digital Single Market" prepared by the
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co-rapporteurs Kaja Kallas (ALDE) from the Industry, Research and Energy
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Committee (ITRE) and Evelyne Gebhardt (S&D) from Internal Market and
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Consumers Protection Committee (IMCO). The FSFE's policy team has amended
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the draft report and is pleased to see that the final version adopted in
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the Plenary includes several positive statements concerning Free Software.</p>
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<p>In particular, the report urges the European Commission and the Council
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of the EU to increase the share of Free Software and its reuse in public
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administrations as a solution to increase interoperability. The report
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also promotes the security advantages of Free Software, and calls the EU
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to commit to the increased use of Free Software in educational establishments
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and public administrations. We hope that the European Commission will
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follow the example of the Parliament and will implement the recommendations
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to increase the use of Free Software in public sector.</p>
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<h2 id="out-of-the-community">Out of the community</h2>
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<ul>
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<li><p>Daniel Pocock <a href="http://danielpocock.com/do-you-own-your-phone-or-it-owns-you">blogs
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about the freedom to leave your phone offline or at home</a>, and argues
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why you should start with buying a watch.</p></li>
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<li><p><a href="http://matija.suklje.name/i-am-using-lets-encrypt-on-my-server-now">Hook
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writes about his positive experience with switching to Let's Encrypt
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certificates for his server</a> and comes up with some links for more
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information to do it yourself.</p></li>
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<li><p>Many of us feel sad these days about the loss of Ian Murdock. His
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contributions to the world of Free Software and the Debian system are
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without end. <a href="http://danielpocock.com/ian-murdock-police-brutality">Daniel
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Pocock gathered some background, feelings and other people's tributes to
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Ian Murdock on his blog</a>.</p></li>
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<li><p><a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/mmoeller/2015/12/15/freedomvote-a-summary/">Marcus
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Möller reports and gives a summary about Freedomvote</a> - a successful
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'ask you candidates' campaign that the FSFE Switzerland was running for
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this years elections.</p></li>
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<li><p>Erik Albers made his first experiences with FirefoxOS and asks
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<a href="http://blog.3rik.cc/2016/01/put-freedom-into-firefox-os-marketplace/">Mozilla
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to put freedom into FirefoxOS market place</a>.</p></li>
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<li><p>The <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/FellowshipEvents/Berlin/2016-01-16-Free-Software-Installation">FSFE group Berlin made a Free Software installation party and liberated
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23 PC's with Debian</a> that will be given to refugee organisations and
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schools.</p></li>
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</ul>
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<h2 id="what-else-have-we-done">What else have we done?</h2>
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<ul>
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<li><p>FSFE <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2016/news-20160118-01.en.html">provided
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the European Commission input on setting priorities in ICT standards and
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answered to the public consultation on the adoption of a Priority ICT
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Standards Plan</a>. In order for the EU to achieve a true digital single
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market that is interoperable and pro-competitive, there is a need for
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standards that are open, minimalistic and implementable with Free Software.
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Other points that have been risen are that a reference implementation is
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published under a Free Software licence, that all software developed with
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public funds is to be released as Free Software, and that harmful licensing
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practices such as FRAND should be avoided in the fields of software,
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internet and the web.</p></li>
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<li><p>Together with April and several other organisations, <a href="https://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20151203-01.en.html">FSFE signed a joint
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disagreement against the partnership agreement signed between France's
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ministry of education and Microsoft</a> about IT solutions in school.
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The partnership revolves around teachers' training for mastering Microsoft
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environment, the provision of a cloud ecosystem and an e-learning platform
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which in total amounts to complete control of IT in French schools under
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the supervision of Microsoft. With this agreement the ministry is forcing
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schools and pupils to a particular proprietary vendor.</p></li>
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<li><p><a href="https://events.ccc.de/congress/2015/wiki/Assembly:Free_Software_Foundation_Europe">FSFE
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had an assembly at the 32nd Chaos Communication Congress</a> in Hamburg,
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Germany, <a href="http://blog.3rik.cc/2015/12/fsfe-assembly-during-chaos-communication-congress-32c3/">including 12 self-organized sessions and the GNU/Burger</a>.</p></li>
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<li><p>Just before Christmas and the completion of the EU Data Protection
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package, all members of the European Parliament received our e-mail
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self-defense leaflet in their mailboxes. This way we wanted to remind
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policymakers <a href="http://blogs.fsfe.org/polina/?p=69">how important encryption is to
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everyone's right to privacy</a>.</p></li>
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</ul>
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<h2 id="take-action">Take Action</h2>
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<ul>
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<li><p>In 2016 we have 15 years of FSFE and 5 years of I love Free Software
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Day: <a href="https://fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/">Join us in celebrating
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Free Software by expressing your appreciation towards Free Software
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developers on February 14</a>! #ILoveFS</p></li>
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<li><p>As every year, we will have a booth at FOSDEM and a lot of members
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of our community will give talks or come to listen to talks. It is one of
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the best chances throughout the year to meet many people from the FSFE.</p></li>
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</ul>
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<h2 id="good-free-software-news">Good Free Software news</h2>
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<p>An amendment to the France's upcoming law for the Digital Republic
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that <a href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/france-parliament-source-code-should-be-made-public">obliges public administrations to publish the source code of its
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custom-built software solutions</a> was adopted by France's parliament.
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Meanwhile another French city, <a href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/grenoble-commits-free-software">Grenoble, commits to Free Software</a> that is said to help to increase
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citzen participation, to cut costs, and facilitate the sharing of knowledge.
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Speaking of licences, <a href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/open-source-initiative-approves-quebec-licence">family
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of Free Software licenses has expanded by three new licences written by
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the government of the Canadian province of Quebec</a>. This should encourage
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the province’s public administrations to share their ICT solutions.</p>
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<p>Thanks to all the
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<a href="/contribute/contribute.html">volunteers</a>
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,
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<a href="http://fellowship.fsfe.org/join">Fellows</a>
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and
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<a href="/donate/thankgnus.html">corporate donors</a>
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who enable our work,</p>
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<p>your editors Polina Malaja and Erik Albers <a href="/index.html">FSFE</a></p>
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</body>
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<sidebar promo="about-fsfe"/>
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<date>
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<original content="2016-01-28"/>
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</date>
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<followup>donate</followup>
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<tags>
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<tag>newsletter</tag>
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</tags>
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</html>
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