Filesharing Is Not a Crime--It's an Official Religion (In Sweden)

Since 2010, the Swedish piracy group Kopomi has been attempting to gain official recognition as a religion, in an interesting attempt to remove the legal stigma from file-sharing. After several repeated and failed attempts, The Missionary Church of Kopomism is now officially registered as a religious organization in Sweden.

Kopomi is Swedish for “Copy Me.” Kopomists hold CTRL+C and CTRL+V as sacred symbols and believe that “communication is sacred.” The Church was founded by Philosophy student Isak Gerson, who shared something of a manifesto with file-sharing site TorrentFreak in a recent interview:

“A lot of people still worry about going to jail when copying and remixing. I hope in the name of Kopimi that this will change… We confessional Kopimists have not only depended on each other in this struggle, but on everyone who is copying information. To everyone with an internet connection: Keep copying. Maintain hardline Kopimi.”

The Missionary Church of Kopimism currently has over 3000 members and growing.

[Kopimistsamfundet (Swedish and English) via Torre ntFreak]

Filesharing Is Not a Crime–It’s an Official Religion (In Sweden)

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