It’s no secret that a lot of today’s tech-savvy society members participate in the lovely, and frequently illegal, acts of pirating and file sharing. Like speeding on the freeway, file sharing has become widely accepted as a reality of the Internet. But what happens when file sharing goes from routine to… divine?
About a week before the New Year, the Church of Kopimism took the plunge in becoming the first recognized religion to hold file sharing, or “copycatting,” up to the holy light.
Isak Gerson, a 19-year-old Swedish philosophy student, first founded Kopimism in 2010. This new religion, registered in Sweden, has been gaining support since its creation. That isn’t to say that the road to establishing itself was an easy one. After three grueling applications, the Kammarkollegiet – Sweden’s Administrative Services Agency (the group in charge of approving new religions within the country) – finally accepted the church of Kopimism.
‘Kopyacting,’ or the act of copying, sharing, or duplicating information of any kind, is viewed as a ritualistic act in Kopimism. This is what accredits Kopimism as a religion, as having a ritual or some sort of spiritual activity is required in order for a belief to be registered through the Kammarkollegiet.
While CTRL+C and CTRL+V, the keyboard shortcuts for ‘Copy’ and ‘Paste,’ may be seen as symbols of faith to a Kopimist, that doesn’t mean that Kopimist pirates will be getting any slack from Swedish authorities. Pirating, which has fairly strict, zero-tolerance legal opposition in Sweden, will still be enforced regardless of the offender’s faith. If there were changes to the piracy laws based on the development of Kopimism, it would be interesting to see whether or not that impacted the faith’s following. It could likely become the scapegoat for legal piracy repercussions.
According to the Kopimi Manifesto, “Kopimism is a creed that tries to answer the existential question: what is the meaning of life? In the copying, distribution, and remix of information, we believe that the answer can be found.” This religion believes that copying is fundamental to life. Kopimi was coined as a concept in the early 2000s on the Pirate Agency forums. Its community does not believe in gods or the supernatural, but rather that life originated from the DNA molecule’s ability to duplicate itself. Kopimism sees this duplication to be the most basic element of life and nature.
“An important feature of our church is the missionary message. From all to one and from one to all.” Closing in on 2,000 followers on Facebook, Kopimism could be 2012’s hot new fad religion. With the possible perk of one day being excluded from piracy laws, it’s easy to see where people who are not normally tempted by the fruit of religion might find Kopimism to be an enticing option.
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