<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><B>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:</B></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; "><B>John Gilmore donates US$15,000 to the Freenet Project</B></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, 17th August, 2006 - John Gilmore, one of the founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Cypherpunks mailing list, and Cygnus Solutions, has donated US$15,000 to the Freenet Project, to support the ongoing development of the Freenet software.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">This donation will ensure the continued employment of Freenet's full-time software developer, Matthew Toseland and other expenses. Matthew has been working for Freenet full time for the last 4 years, funded entirely by donations to the project.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">In April 2006 the Freenet Project released the first alpha version of Freenet 0.7, a new approach to anonymous peer-to-peer adopting a "scalable darknet" architecture, designed to offer a new level of privacy and security for those using the software, while addressing a number of other long-standing issues with Freenet. This donation will support the project as it works towards a beta release of Freenet 0.7, improving the ease of use, speed, and security of the software.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">The donation came from John Gilmore's donor advised fund at The San Francisco Foundation.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>For further information please see <A href="http://freenetproject.org">http://freenetproject.org</A>/</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>ABOUT THE FREENET PROJECT</DIV><DIV>Freenet is a 501c3 non-profit corporation whose goal is the development of free software that allows users to publish and obtain information on the Internet without fear of censorship.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">CONTACT:</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Ian Clarke</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Freenet Project Inc</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="mailto:ian@freenetproject.org">ian@freenetproject.org</A></DIV><BR><DIV>- END -</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></BODY></HTML>