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The Church of Kopimism - File sharing as a religion

August 20, 2012

The Swedish Missionary Church of Kopimism is a religion for our times. Its central tenet is that information should be freely distributed and unrestricted, and that file sharing and other data copying is a sacred virtue.

https://p.dw.com/p/15tLN

In early 2012, the Swedish authorities recognized the Swedish Missionary Church of Kopimism as a religion. Among its founders was Isak Gerson, a 20-year-old who was a student of philosophy at the time. Today, he is the spiritual leader of the church, which has about 6000 members across the world. Kopimists believe that the circulation of knowledge and therefore the act of copying is sacred.