AUTHORITIES IN SWEDEN have agreed to formally recognise filesharing as a formal religion.

The organisers of the ‘Church of Kopomists’ (‘kopimi’ is a phonetic rendering of ‘copy me’) say they have received contact from the country’s administrative agency saying it will be formally recognised as a church for all legal purposes.

Founded in 2010, the Church deems information to be sacred, and that it should therefore be copied as much as is possible.

On a press release on its website, the Church explained:

Information holds a value, in itself and in its content, and the value multiplies by copying.

The Church says the acknowledgement of its status is “a big step for kopimism”, and hoped that the move would mean filesharers could express and practice their views without fear of persecution.

The formal recognition of the Church does not make filesharing legal in itself, but the Church says it may result in pro-filesharing views being taken into account when future legislation is being drafted.

The recognition only came on the third time of asking for the Church, which had been asked to formalise a communal method of prayer.

Among the Church’s favoured symbols are the phrases ‘Ctrl-C’ and ‘Ctrl-V’ – the keyboard shortcuts representing the copy and paste functions.

Aside from being the home of the world’s first church of filesharing, Sweden is also home to the first Pirate Party – which spawned a short-lived Irish counterpart for around nine months last year.

Sweden is also home to the main servers that house WikiLeaks, and to the well-known file-sharing website The Pirate Bay.