Copy Righteous? According to the impeccable news source that is TorrentFreak.com, The Missionary Church of Kopomism is Sweden’s latest offi cial religion. Kopimists believe that information is sacred, and that the flow and reproduction of information is ethical and right. Their sacred symbols are CTRL C and CTRL V. Yes, filesharing is now a religion.

The Kopimi (“Copy Me” in Swedish) have been pushing for religious status for some time now, but the notoriously intolerant Scandinavians had refused their application back in 2010 with the flimsy excuse that their prayers and meditations were not sufficiently formalised. It looks like since then the authorities have changed their minds and decided that spending hours hunched in front of a screen uploading and downloading the latest XMen films is dedication equal to the most devout Benedictine monk in his cell.

Kopimism was founded by 19 year old philosophy student and (literally) religious downloader Isak Gerson. “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,” Isak told TorrentFreak.com “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.”

He and his co-religionists see themselves as a religious minority - the jail sentences handed out to The Pirate Bay founders are evidence of the oppression of a heretic sect in their eyes. Instead of making the sign of a cross when they greet, they splay their fingers out as if hitting the Control and C keys simultaneously. SchNEWS doesn’t normally promote religious cults, but we’ll make an exception in this case - their (holy) site is www.kopimistsamfundet.se