Well here's a story we never thought we'd be reporting on; according to TorrentFreak, a religion that holds file-sharing as a sacred act has, after two years, been officially approved as a religion by the Swedish authorities.
The religion, known as the Missionary Church of Kopimism, was formed in early 2010 and holds CTRL+C and CTRL+V as sacred symbols. The Church was founded by philosophy student, Isak Gerson, who is a self-declared file-sharer that wishes to protect his belief, that file sharing is a vital aspect of life, from persecution.
The religion does not directly promote illegal file sharing though does promote the open distribution of knowledge to all and is against laws that seek to monitor data transfer, outlaw encryption or invade privacy on a mass scale. The Church had been refused as an official religion previously as it did not have any formalised method of praying or meditation.
Over 3,000 members strong prior to the announcement, the Church hopes that this news will help to bolster member numbers, "I think that more people will have the courage to step out as Kopimists. Maybe not in the public, but at least to their close ones ... there's still a legal stigma around copying for many. 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." spoke Isak.
We had hoped to provide some insight as to the religion's practises, however, either the official website has been flushed with signup requests or some very angry copyright firms have begun denial-of-service attacks, as we're receiving a very intermittent connection from the site.
For those interested in either joining or simply looking to find out more about this rather unexpected religion, the official website can be found at kopimistsamfundet.se.
