Please consider adding info@fsf.org to your address book, which
will ensure that our messages reach you and not your spam box!

Dear Ruben Safir,

As I write this, novel coronavirus numbers are hitting new peaks in
many countries around the world. Because of proprietary software and
Service as a Software Substitute (SaaSS), our rights are reaching new
lows. Being forced to live, work, and learn at a distance from each
other has driven many to use proprietary systems for
videoconferencing, test taking, and more.

It's not just the pandemic, though. Companies continue doing things
with software just because they can, without regard to whether they
should. They're steamrolling us into software-driven cars (scheduled
in the US to be on the streets of San Francisco without human backup
drivers by the end of the year) which will enable software owners to
control our physical movements, and software-powered "doorbells"
that enable a terrifying panopticon for bulk surveillance,
complementing the always-listening black box personal assistant
devices present in far too many homes and pockets.

Our freedoms have had a rough year in 2020. So has the Free Software
Foundation (FSF). While most of our financial support does come from
online and mail-in donations, the merchandise sales and in-person
contributions we would normally receive at free software events are of
substantial importance. To have ongoing zeroes in those categories is
a big loss. Couple that with lost opportunities to make in-person
connections with event audiences about our work, and the impact of
general economic uncertainty on all donations, and we have the most
challenging financial picture of my seventeen years here. But still,
we haven't pulled up stakes or hunkered down. Our fourteen staff
members have all stepped up to the challenge to take on more.

In this tornado of technology being developed and deployed at a speed
far outpacing actual thinking about its impact, the deliberate,
thoughtful, and principled carefulness the FSF has become known for
over its thirty-five years is exactly what we need. Free software
applies the full intelligence of our global society to any
issue. Only with free software can everyone be empowered to raise red
flags or help solve problems in ways that aren't structurally biased
toward entrenching the proprietary control currently threatening free
societies.

We have made significant progress toward a goal I know you
support -- communicating the importance of free software to a
much broader and general audience. In the last year, we shared
three animated short videos written and produced by film
professionals -- including Rewind, which speaks directly
to the necessity of free software in lifesaving scientific
research. We're doing this advocacy on top of our regular work
of enforcing the GNU General Public License, educating on
licensing best practices, and providing reliable free software
development infrastructure used by hundreds of thousands of
people worldwide -- all of which you can read about in the
upcoming fall edition of the Free Software Foundation
Bulletin.

Can you join this effort as an FSF associate member? You
can start for as little as $10 per month ($5 for students), or
$120 per year. Besides enabling important work at a time the
world desperately needs it, your membership gives strength to the
idea of free software. No other organization stands for this
idea like the FSF does.

The more members we can count, the better we can defend
everyone's freedoms against the largest companies and governments
on the planet, and this starts with achieving our fall goal of
500 new associate members. Plus, associate members can
select a special gift during this appeal, and you'll be able to
enjoy all the member benefits, which include merchandise
discounts, a 16GB bootable membership card, and use of the
videoconferencing server we launched in May.

At thirty-five, the FSF is changing in many ways, but solely for the
purpose of effectively defending our principles, which are not
changing. After being elected earlier this year, our president
Geoffrey Knauth said, "I pledge to support honest dialogue and
emerging leaders in the quest to secure the future for free software
for generations to come, and not to alter the tenets of the free
software vision." With the ongoing visionary advice of founder
Richard M. Stallman, and with your support, the FSF is doing what we
need to, to grow in strength for another thirty-five years and beyond.
Thank you for standing with us, for doing so much for free software,
and for being essential to this work.

Yours in freedom,

John Sullivan

Executive Director

P.S. Please speak up for freedom by using the hashtag
#UserFreedom on your favorite microblogging
service, and pledge your support for the free software movement
today. See fsf.org/share to learn how to follow the FSF on various
social networks.

Illustration Copyright © 2020, Free Software Foundation, Inc., by
Raghavendra Kamath, Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International license.