A bunch of students in Sweden founded the Missionary Church of Kopimism back in 2010, a spoof on established religion obviously, which claims that the copying of information is sacred, and recently the Swedish government actually granted them religion status in that country.
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.
From their “Constitution” :
Other sacred symbolism
The key combination ‘ctrl C + ctrl V ‘is a deeply sacred representation of the act of copying, and therefore should treated as such.
Similarly, the following phrases are representations of saints:
‘Copy and seed!’
‘We are many’
‘Expontential multiplication creates powerful quantities’
Ok, it’s funny. Even belly laugh funny. It shows the whole idiocy of giving special privilege to religious organisations. Well done, them. And they are expanding, and already have branches in 18 other countries, including the US. But what societies needs is less tax-exempt organisations, less recognition of nonsensical beliefs and less special treatment for faith, not more.
I get their point. But I also hope that they can achieve more than making internet piracy a religion. I would have preferred had the Swedish government not granted them religion status, and instead governments would just look at this example and say “wait a second, that sounds familiar, we have a few groups that make silly claims like that, maybe we should look into their privileges sometime”. That would be a better outcome.
