This is just really a short notice from the Pirate Parties International conference in Germany. We've technically been able to follow it through a web stream. I like the IRC-chat better even though it's slightly awkward that it was places on freenode rather than piratenpartij.

I was, also technically, a candidate for the Administrator Secretary(?) position of the organisation. Eventually, it was rewarded to Lola Voronina from the Russian Pirate Party. I only knew Sergey from the Russian Pirate Party before, but I've all their work with Russian WTO membership negotiations is very, very important and it's been very, very inspirational for me as a person to get in touch with PPRU because of that..

After having talked to several members of revspace in The Hague about possible trade sanctions against Russia I find EU maliciousness in information technology and trade with Russia less worrisome. Russian authority to defend themselves against trade sanctions will be limited. Many laws will, I guess, come under review. On the other hand, a PPRU member told me on twitter that Russian copyright law is not compatible at all with making anything public without strong protection, and I can't know enough about Russian law to make proper evaluations. I hope that Lola's new position will bring closer ties with Russian pirates and, because I'm me, particularly around trade issues. Russia is the strongest bastion of information innovation in the world. They surpass Europe and the US from better legislation (or less respect for it) and as opposed to China aren't cumbered with cultural censorship supreme. It would be sad if TRIPs would change that.

New co-presidents are Samir Allioui, whose name I always misspell to "Alliuoi", and an old fox in the organisation. He is accompandied by Marcel Kolaja from Czech Republic. ÄŒeska piratska strana have done well in elections, with media and with organisation and member cohesion. Samir and Marcel will, hopefully, bring strong organisation and strong member cohesion to the organisation over the next year.

I am given to understand Aleksandar Blagojević fell out of the board. Not sure what the rationale is behind that. All Eastern European or Slavic speaking countries have been very successful with organisation and popular support. They also seem built around member cohesion rather than front figures which for me, as some form of front figure, actually is very nice. It makes me think of both Ung pirat and Junge Piraten, both of which I like very much and one of which, in particular, used to be my "home".

Anyway, this is probably a praise-the-Slavics post, which is good and was my aim.