Palladium Software (manufacturer of Ultimate Family Tree, and a major sponsor of Rootsweb), was recently bought out by the Banner Blue-Broderbund-TLC-Mattel Conglomerate (products including Family Tree Maker, Family Origins, the World Family Tree CD's, etc.). As a result, Palladium has missed it's December 1st sponsorship payment to RootsWeb, causing no small degree of financial difficulties at RootsWeb, including Karen and Brian having to take out a $25,000 personal loan last week to cover interim expenses. Although they have been assured by representatives of both Palladium and the Broderbund Genealogical Monopoly (now controlling more than 90% of the genealogical software market) that the sponsorship will continue, no date has been given for when the now three-weeks overdue payment will be made. As a result, on behalf of all of us on the RootsWeb List who are already RootsWeb Members, Sponsors and Donors, I ask that you, our fellow On-Line Researchers, PLEASE JOIN US by Signing on as a RootsWeb Sponsor Now (https://www.rootsweb.com/mf.html). Surely the $24 you spend (only $2 a month) to become a RootsWeb Sponsor is a far better way to spend your money than a one-time $50-60 commercial CD. Consider just one example, the RootsWeb-hosted GenWeb Archives at http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/, with its thousands of web sites offering millions of bytes more in the way of records than any commercial genealogical enterprise in existence. If it were not for the generosity, support and kindness of our Extended Family at the RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative - the Louisa and Henry County, Iowa websites and lists would not even exist. And ours is only one of almost 5,000 Genealogical Lists made available under the auspices of RootsWeb. In October alone, RootsWeb's servers processed almost 120 million emails, and it is estimated that over a quarter-million genealogists are beneficiaries of RootsWeb's largesse. Despite that, the percentage of RootsWeb Users who contribute financially is under 5% -- far less than what is needed to ensure that the Data Cooperative can remain independent of corporate sponsors -- Free from them and Free for us. Even had this not happened (the missing payment), it is inherently dangerous for us to permit any commercial genealogical enterprise (particularly a monopoly) to provide a significant portion of RootsWeb's income. We, the On-Line Genealogical Community, must stand behind RootsWeb to ensure that it, too, does not become either swallowed whole or destroyed by the Broderbund Barons (arguably their goal when they failed to make a legal, contractual payment). Together we can make it happen, just by Supporting RootsWeb - our own On-Line Universal Genealogy Society. And in the meantime, in addition to your personal Support of RootsWeb, a reminder that another way you can help is by purchasing a far better Holiday Gift for friends and family than commercial genealogical software: a New RootsWeb Gift Membership.