243 lines
9.7 KiB
HTML
243 lines
9.7 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
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<html newsdate="2009-11-13" type="newsletter">
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>FSFE Newsletter - October 2009</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>FSFE Newsletter - October 2009</h1>
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<p>October has been a dense, vibrant and challenging month for FSFE.
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We have done more work than will fit the limits of this letter.
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For this reason, after reading the newsletter, please visit the
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news section of our website to have a complete overview of our
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work:</p>
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<a href="/news/news.html">https://fsfe.org/news/news.html</a>
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<p align="right"><a href="mailto:poderi@fsfe.org">Giacomo Poderi</a></p>
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<h3>Table of Contents</h3>
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<ol>
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<li><a href="#1" name="TOC1">FSFE suggests to make MySQL independent as solution for Oracle/Sun deal</a></li>
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<li><a href="#2" name="TOC2">Announcing FSFE's new Finnish country team</a></li>
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<li><a href="#3" name="TOC3">Fellowship meetings in Frankfurt, Berlin and Vienna</a></li>
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<li><a href="#4" name="TOC4">Windows 7 to hit consumers with known security problem</a></li>
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<li><a href="#5" name="TOC5">New Fellowship jabber server</a></li>
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<li><a href="#6" name="TOC6">Welcome to Alina Mierlus as intern</a></li>
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<strong>In the spotlight</strong>
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<li><a href="#7" name="TOC7">EC vs MS: the browser and interoperability cases</a></li>
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<strong>It happened in the past</strong>
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<li><a href="#8" name="TOC8">Fellows discuss the future of the Fellowship portal</a></li>
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<strong>Upcoming events</strong>
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<li><a href="#9" name="TOC9">FSFE and the Fellows co-organise FSCONS 2009, Lindholmen, Sweden, 13-15 November</a></li>
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<li><a href="#10" name="TOC10">FSFE to launch the Fellowship grants project</a></li>
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</ol>
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<p></p>
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<h3><a name="1"/>FSFE suggests to make MySQL independent as solution for Oracle/Sun deal</h3>
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<p>A lot of rumours spread during the last weeks about the acquisition of
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Sun Microsystems by Oracle. Here, the Free Software community is
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concerned for the future of MySQL. To shed some light on this issue,
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FSFE's president, Karsten Gerloff, published a detailed analysis of the
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key points involved in the acquisition. Following this analysis,
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FSFE suggested that the best solution to allow the Oracle/Sun deal to
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be finalized and secure a free future for MySQL is to make it independent.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/?p=274">https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/?p=274</a></li>
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<li><a href="/news/2009/news-20091023-02.html">https://fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091023-02.html</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h3><a name="2"/>Announcing FSFE's new Finnish country team</h3>
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<p>We are pleased to announce the formation of a new country team working
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under the FSFE's umbrella: Otto Kekäläinen, Henri Bergius, and
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Timo Jyrinki are the members of FSFE's Finnish team. They will work
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respectively as team coordinator, deputy coordinator and Finnish
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translation coordinator. All of them will participate in the
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upcoming FSCONS, where they will meet other FSFE team members to discuss
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the team's strategies for cooperation and for their growth in Finland.
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To contact the Finnish team you can write an e-mail to:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="mailto:finland@fsfeurope.org">finland@fsfeurope.org</a></li>
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<li><a href="/contact/local.html">https://fsfe.org/contact/local.html</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h3><a name="3"/>Fellowship meetings in Frankfurt, Berlin and Vienna</h3>
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<p>During the month, the regular Fellowship local meetings took place as
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usual. German Fellows met in Frankfurt and in Berlin on the 7th and 8th
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of October, while the Austrian Fellows held their usual monthly meeting
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on the 16th. Main topics of the evenings have been: Free Software in
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education, follow-up on the "Ask your candidate about Free Software!"
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campaign, the Fellowship jabber meetings, and specific Free Software
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projects Fellows are involved in. To get in touch with your local
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Fellowship group or to start one in your own region, have a look at:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/CategoryFellowshipGroup">https://wiki.fsfe.org/CategoryFellowshipGroup</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h3><a name="4"/>Windows 7 to hit consumers with known security problem</h3>
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<p>In October, the German federal IT security agency (BSI) issued a report
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concerning a 'high-risk' vulnerability in Microsoft's SMB2-Protocol
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which also affects Windows 7. Microsoft remained silent about this
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warning and did not yet provide a solution to the problem. FSFE
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published a press release to highlight that the company's bad practice
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of ignoring high risk vulnerabilities is unfortunately the rule, not the
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exception. With Free Software, users are not dependent on a single party
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to fix such problems for them.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="/news/2009/news-20091019-01.html">https://fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091019-01.html</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h3><a name="5"/>New Fellowship jabber server</h3>
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<p>In order to improve the services to FSFE's Fellows we recently replaced
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our old jabber server with a new one based on ejabberd. After a testing
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period, we are happy to announce that the new server is up and running!
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This change will solve many of the problems that Fellows reported to us
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during the past months. To take advantage, remember to update your
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account settings!</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Jabber">https://wiki.fsfe.org/Jabber</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h3><a name="6"/>Welcome to Alina Mierlus as intern</h3>
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<p>On 15 October, Alina Mierlus joined FSFE to start her internship. She
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will work with us until mid-February 2010 from our new Berlin office
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and will mainly focus on campaigns and events coordination. Alina is from
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Romania and worked over the past six years advocating Free Software. She
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says: "This internship offers me the opportunity to apply what I've
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learned, but for a European Foundation. I've always believed that
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campaigns, events and all the things that put people together are the
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most important ways to have a healthy community."
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Welcome on board Alina!</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/alinam/">https://blogs.fsfe.org/alinam/</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h2>In the spotlight</h2>
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<h3><a name="7"/>EC vs MS: the browser and interoperability cases</h3>
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<p>The open issues that Microsoft has with the European Commission (EC) got
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shaken up in October. The proposed solutions will not be helpful for
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Free Software, so FSFE is keeping up the pressure on the EC.</p>
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<p>Commissioner Neelie Kroes wants to close two important cases concerning
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Microsoft before the end of her mandate at the Directorate General for
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Competition (DG Comp): one case relates to the dominant position of the
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company in the browser market, the other to the failure in providing
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interoperability information for desktop applications.</p>
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<p>FSFE is working to provide input to the Commission in order to make the
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settlements as fair as possible for all the actors in the software
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market, Free Software included. In the past weeks, we already explained
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why we believe that the current details of the settlements are not
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satisfactory and provided feedback to the Commissioner. We will soon
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deliver a new formal comment concerning the updated version of the
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settlements to the Commission.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="/news/2009/news-20091008-01.html">https://fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091008-01.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="https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/?p=263">https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/?p=263</a></li>
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<li><a href="/news/2009/news-20091006-01.html">https://fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091006-01.html</a></li>
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<li><a href="/news/2009/news-20091005-01.html">/news/2009/news-20091005-01.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="8"/>Fellows discuss the future of the Fellowship portal</h3>
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<p>Two years ago, the Fellows of FSFE started a lively discussion on the
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future of the Fellowship portal. The discussion covered the use of
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forums, calenders, mailing lists, jabber accounts and other services,
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and it was one of the landmarks that brought the Fellowship platform to
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the current and improved version.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/press-release/2007q4/000188.html">Press Release</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h2>Upcoming events</h2>
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<h3><a name="9"/>FSFE and the Fellows co-organise FSCONS 2009, Lindholmen, Sweden, 13-15 November</h3>
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<p>This year, the Free Society Conference and Nordic Summit (FSCONS) in
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Lindholmen (Göteborg), Sweden, will be co-organised by FSFE and the
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Fellows. Beside the participation of Karsten Gerloff, FSFE's president, Adriaan
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de Groot, Freedom Task Force coordinator, who will hold talks, the
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Fellows will organise workshops and panels.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/FSCONS-FSFE">https://wiki.fsfe.org/FSCONS-FSFE</a></li>
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<li><a href="http://fscons.org/">http://fscons.org/</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h3><a name="10"/>FSFE to launch the Fellowship grants project</h3>
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<p>Thanks to FSFE's donors and tarent GmbH in particular, we will be able
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to award three Fellowship grants each month for one year. These grants
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will cover the Fellowship contribution for people who have done
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exceptional things to bring Free Software forward, and will be awarded
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after evaluation of the individual applications. Candidacies can be
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submitted to contact@fsfe.org. In December, we will announce
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the first three people who will receive the grants.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">https://my.fsfe.org/donate</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>You can order our merchandise at</p>
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<a href="/order/order.html">https://fsfe.org/order/order.html</a>
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</body>
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</html>
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