A bunch of folks in Sweden have attempted to set up a “file copying” church. The basis for this is their observation that the swedish Constitution Act, Chapter 2. § 1 states that every citizen is guaranteed freedom of religion: freedom, either alone or with others to practice their religion. Their website (or at least the english language version of it) claims …

A religion is a belief system with rituals.

The missionary kopimistsamfundet is a religious group centered in Sweden who believe that copying and the sharing of information is the best and most beautiful that is. To have your information copied is a token of appreciation, that someone think you have done something good. * All knowledge to all

* The search for knowledge is sacred

* The circulation of knowledge is sacred

* The act of copying is sacred.



Quite clearly somebody is pushing the boundaries on this one. Its the pirate party of course, and yet another of their attempts to move the file-sharing agenda forward, but of course the Swedish authorities are not complete idiots and were not insane enough to actually go for it. According to the UPI report here:

Swedish officials ruled against a Swedish group’s attempt to have Internet file sharing classified as an act of religious worship. The Swedish Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency rejected the attempt by the Pirate Party of Uppsala to have their information copying and spreading activities registered as a religious faith known as The Missionary Church of Kopimism, The Local reported Thursday. The church’s name came from the “Kopimi” — pronounced “copy me” — logo placed on the Web sites of people who are willing to have the contained information copied.

In some ways, its a pity they did not get official recognition, just think of the fun to be had if they had managed to pull it off:

Copyright, any kind of copyright, the complete opposite of their ‘belief’, would have immediately become the dark side.

All those advocating copyright would be blasphemers [off with their heads]

All attempts to prosecute file-sharing would be classified as religious persecution

All the film studios would refuse to actually believe and so could then be classified as official atheist corporations

Oh and least you wonder, this is not a first. Last year, the Swedish authorities rejected a bid to have the Church of Orgasm be recognized as an official religion. I can only wonder if that came to a sticky end; it must have been a bit of a blow for them.

The one truly positive thing I can observe here is that quite clearly many individuals, and also the Swedish Authorities view these new religions as a scam (which of course they are). All that differentiates them from the older more established beliefs is that they have fewer true believers.

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