95 lines
4.8 KiB
HTML
95 lines
4.8 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
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<html newsdate="2015-10-13">
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>FSFE convinces 1125 public administrations to remove
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proprietary software advertisements</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>FSFE convinces 1125 public administrations to remove proprietary
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software advertisements</h1>
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<p>After six years of activity, the
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<a href="/activities/pdfreaders/pdfreaders.html">PDFreaders campaign</a>
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is coming to a close this month as one of our most successful campaigns.</p>
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<p>The campaign began in 2009 with the intent of removing advertisements
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for proprietary PDF reader software from public institutions' websites.
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To start it all off, volunteers submitted 2104 "bugs", or instances of
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proprietary PDF software being directly promoted by public authorities,
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and the FSFE <a href="/activities/pdfreaders/buglist.html">listed</a> them
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online. Since then, hundreds of Free Software activists took action by
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writing to the relevant public institutions and calling for changes to
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their websites. We received a lot of positive feedback from the institutions
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thanking us for our letters, and to date, 1125 out of the 2104 websites
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(53%) edited their websites by removing links to proprietary PDF readers,
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or adding links to Free Software PDF readers.</p>
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<p>
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In addition to writing letters, FSFE also collected signatures for a
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<a href="/activities/pdfreaders/petition.html">petition
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calling for an end to advertisement for proprietary software products on government
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websites</a>. 90 organizations, 63 businesses, and 2731 individuals
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signed this petition.</p>
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<p>Furthermore, we were able to push for change at both national and
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international levels.</p>
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<ul><li> In Germany,
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<a href="http://gruen-digital.de/2012/03/document-freedom-day-kleine-anfrage-zur-werbung-fuer-adobe-reader-eingereicht/">national parties</a>
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gave statements in favor of free PDF readers and the German Government
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itself has recommended the usage of our text snippet in their
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<a href="http://www.cio.bund.de/Web/DE/Architekturen-und-Standards/Migrationsleitfaden-und-Migrationshilfen/migrationsleitfaden_node.html">migration guide</a>.
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FSFE's coordinator for Germany, Max Mehl, <a href="http://blog.mehl.mx/2015/german-government-wants-authorities-to-advertise-pdfreaders/">covers it</a>
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in more detail on his blog.</li>
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<li> In the EU: the European Parliament
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<a href="/activities/pdfreaders/parliamentary-questions-eu.html">directly asked</a>
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the European Commission what were the reasons for advertising a
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specific software and which steps were taken to solve this problem.</li>
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<li>In 2011 one of our pdfreaders.org coordinators,
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<a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/polina/2015/09/10/free-pdf-reader-for-the-web-browser/">Hannes Hauswedell,
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was in contact with Google</a>, asking them to release the PDF reader included in
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their Chrome browser as Free Software. Finally, in May 2014, the
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<a href="https://twitter.com/nasko/status/469595752734269440">
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pdfium sources were published openly</a>, and while FSFE's enquiry
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might not have been the only reason they were released, it marks an
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important change for the widespread adoption of Free Software PDF readers.</li>
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</ul>
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<blockquote>
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<p>"This success would not have been possible without the help
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and hard work from our volunteers and the support from our donors.
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<strong>Thank you!</strong> While many public and private web-sites still promote
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proprietary readers, the level of awareness has changed significantly during
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our campaign and now it should be much easier for you to approach the
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remaining web-site administrators. Also most internet users today already use
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Free Software when they open a PDF file in their browser -- a huge difference
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from 2009!" says Hannes Hauswedell who started the campaign. "Of course work
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still remains and we invite you to keep on reminding (public) administrators
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to use Open Standards and not recommend proprietary software. And with your
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support, we too, will continue to fight for a web that respects its users'
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privacy and freedom!"</p></blockquote>
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<p>To <a href="/activities/pdfreaders/follow-up.html">get involved</a>
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you can use our <a href="/activities/pdfreaders/letter.html">sample letter</a>
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to send to the relevant public administration, or you can write one of your own.
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Just make sure to include where to find a list of
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<a href="http://pdfreaders.org">Free Software PDF readers</a> that could
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replace the link from their website.</p>
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<p>A special thanks again to the activists, volunteers, and donors who
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helped make this campaign a success!</p>
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</body>
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<tags>
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<tag key="front-page"/>
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<tag key="public-administration">Public Administration</tag>
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<tag key="pdfreaders">PDFreaders</tag>
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<tag key="campaigns">Campaign</tag>
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</tags>
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</html>
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