The catechysm of Kopimism: file-sharing in Sweden

This Kat is used to reading pop culture references describing sport and fashion as religious experiences. However, she did not expect to read that file-sharing had been labelled as a religion and that it had been recognised as such by a sovereign government. The Missionary Church of Kopimism was founded in 2010 by Swedish philosophy student and file sharer Mr Isak Gerson. After several attempts, just before Christmas 2011, the Swedish governmental agency Kammarkollegiet registered the Church of Kopimism as an official religious organisation of the state. According to a statement issued by the Church,

'information is holy and copying is a sacrament. Information holds a value, in itself and in what it contains, and the value multiplies through copying. Therefore, copying is central for the organisation and its members'. 

 Members 'worship what is the holiest of the holiest, information and copy'. The Church organises 'kopyactings', namely 'religious services where the kopimists share information with each other through copying and remix'. Further, CTRL+C and CTRL+V (the keyboard shortcuts for copy and paste) are held as sacred symbols.

Mr Gerson stated that the recognition of the Church was 'one step towards the day when we can live out our faith without fear of persecution'. Torrent Freak further reports that Mr Gerson 'hoped that the Church's religious beliefs would be considered in future lawmaking'.

Gustav Nipe, Chairman of the Church, also stated that the earlier failed attempts to have the Church recognised by the Swedish government 'might have something to do with the governmental organisations abiding by a very copyright friendly attitude, with a twisted view on copying'.

This Kat was unable to investigate the Church's website further. A message on its home page informed her that the site had been Slashdotted and urged those interested in joining to 'revisit us in a couple of days when the storm has settled'. However, she does observe that, on the information available to her, the Church does not appear to promote directly illegal file-sharing or pirating of copyright material.

The IPKat cannot help but ask: what do you think?



Merpel cheekily wonders whether according to the Church CTRL+Z (restore) would also be regarded as a sacred symbol which forgives 'sins' related to CTRL+X (cut) ...