This holiday season donate support to free software!

Are you dreading the end of this month and all it entails in terms of mall-parking expeditions and frenzied spending amidst crowds of other buyers? Are you looking for a break from the gimmes and some respite from advertisers' leitmotif that "you have needs"? Break with the year end's usual rampant consumerism and give your loved ones a gift that makes a social difference: give back to the community by giving a membership as a gift, and make a positive change for you and your gift recipient.

Memberships donations are the most critical part of the FSF's funding, and an FSF membership will go to support our campaigns to defend and promote computer users' freedom. Your gift recipient will receive a number of benefits: an ultra-slim USB membership card, the opportunity to take advantage of the FSF-member e-mail forwarding service, free attendance at the annual LibrePlanet conference, a 20 percent discount on FSF merchandise, the FSF's biannual bulletin, and discounts on training classes.

Giving a membership as a gift is easy: make sure you are not logged into an FSF account you might have, and make a donation of $60, for a student membership, or $120, for an associate membership, or any larger amount you wish, using the gift recipient's name. Please note: a thank-you e-mail will automatically be sent out to the e-mail address associated with the donation, and the welcome packet (including the USB member card and the bulletin), will be mailed to the mailing address you enter. If you wish to give the recipient the welcome packet yourself, and save the surprise for later, please enter your own e-mail address and your own mailing address. The addresses can always be updated later.

We will be mailing the gift packs out from Boston, MA, on 6 December. Please account for the mailing date when making your plans.