Young Pirates, the youth wing of Swedish political party Pirate Party, has registered as a religion and church allowing its 3,000 members to freely practice their faith: file-sharing.
The group is now called the Church of Kopimism, which is derived from their online movement Kopimi or "copy me," after Sweden's Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency accepted its application for registration as a religious group in late December, according to its spiritual leader Isak Gerson, 20.
"Being recognized by the state of Sweden is a large step for all of Kopimi. Hopefully, this is one step toward the day when we can live out our faith without fear of persecution," Gerson said Thursday, according to Associated Press.
Kopimists, as members of the church is called, consider sharing files of music, films and other content as holy and copying as a sacrament. Gerson admits that the government may still charge them for illegal file-sharing but he is hoping that treatment of file-sharers will change.
"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," Gerson told website torrentfreak.com.
The group had applied for registration as a spiritual group twice but was rejected.
The emergence of the Church of Kopimism comes amid the crackdown in the U.S. and E.U. on file-sharing websites often used to illegally download movies, TV shows and music. In the U.S., file-sharers have been prosecuted and fined for illegally downloading music online, which is considered piracy and copyright infringement.
Sweden's Pirate Party is now a religious group.
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