The following is a guest post by Maša Čorak.

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On Monday morning, March 9 2015, our fellow pirate Bojan Kopitar has left us after a brief but aggressive fight with leukemia. With him passing away, our community has lost one effacing and phenomenal member, a pioneer-pirate in Croatia and one of the founding members of the Croatian Pirate Party.

Bojan was passionate about languages so his career choice was logical. For years, he worked as a freelance editor and he proudly referred to himself as a grammar nazi.

He had, what I can describe as an intelligent and unique, sometimes even twisted sense of humor. He also had that fascinating “Screw you!” attitude, emphasized without any hint of apologies, every time he participated in the discussion with always impeccable arguments. He won discussions often and in such an elegant way that it was sometimes annoying; especially if you were the unlucky person he was countering. Nine out of ten times Bojan was the smartest person in the proverbial room. Having been an active member of the Internet community, the internet was his battlefield and he fought his battles on forums, social media and other platforms.

Bojan stopped referring to himself as a political pirate and even formally left the Pirate Party almost a year ago, but he never left our pirate principles, our ideas or lost his pirate spirit. Up until a few weeks ago, his pirate spirit lived in every single post he wrote, as he was – first and foremost – supporting an absolute freedom of speech. Freedom to speak the truth even when that truth isn’t desirable, suitable, when it’s offending and controversial… Or just in spite of it, who knows?

What else can I say about Bojan without getting trapped in cheap and pathetic phrases, the same cheap and pathetic phrases he would laugh at so, so hard? Perhaps, it’s for the best to let him speak to you:

“I’ve joined the project of founding a Pirate Party for two important reasons. The first one is the usage of high technology in order to transform our country into efficient and useful service for its citizens, from larger citizens participation in governing to purely practical solutions like the ones already used in Estonian society. The second one is fight for open culture, open knowledge, open education and open communication with, at the same time, concern for our privacy, anonymity and other personal rights…”

Dear Bojan, you’ve lived a way too short, although very meaningful life, where you succeeded in leaving a mark in our community. For that, we’re all grateful and you, my friend, you will never be forgotten.

Rest in peace!

Both images in this post used under fair use doctrine from bug.hr. Featured image is a remix by Pirate Times.

The following is a guest post by Maša Čorak. — On Monday morning, March 9 2015, our fellow pirate Bojan Kopitar has left us after a brief but aggressive fight…