I’m back after a couple of weeks off to deal with personal matters, culminating in a trip to France.  (“La Rentree Americaine” was the tag line for a line of kids’ back-to-school clothing at a Paris department store.)

The French Pirate Party is floating a candidate for a seat in the Assemblee Nationale (lower house of Parliament) that went vacant recently.  The candidate, Maxime Rouquet, hopes to beat nine competitors to become the second elected official from the Pirate Party after its Swedish chapter won a seat in European Parliament a couple of months ago.

And meanwhile in Sweden, Global Gaming Factory completed its Quixotic acquisition of the Pirate Bay, despite widespread skepticism not only about its purported new business model but also about GGF’s ability to raise the agreed purchase price of over US $8 Million.

I’ll be able to check on the outcome of the special parliamentary election when I am back in France the day after the election.  I will be speaking at the ODRL/Virtual Goods Workshop in Nancy on Sept. 22, and then at the co-located IFIP I3E Conference on Sept. 24.

Then the following Thursday (October 1), I will be on a panel in Washington, DC, as the popular Digital Breakfast conference series expands to the national capital.   The topic of the panel is Using Tech to Safeguard Content and IP.  Joining me on the panel will be copyright expert Peter Jaszi of American University, NBC Universal General Counsel Rick Cotton, and noted Beltway tech policy writer Paul Sweeting.