Sweden Formally Recognizes Piracy as Religion

[MrTub]

What would be wonderful is if everyone who put piracy as their religion on the census was fined for theft.

What would be wonderful if everyone that wrote Christianity as religion would be jailed for hatespeech against gay.

Spoiler

I was being ironic since legalizing piracy would be a byproduct of kopimism, same way that some people exploit Christianity for to push an anti-gay agenda

 

[Alar]

That's right... keep watering down religion and showing the world just what silly things they tend to be. Hopefully in the next century people will actually have opinions based off of reason and logic rather than made up fairy tales.

 

[Robert Ewing]

Oh Sweden :3 Only they can get away with this, but fair enough if it wants to be a religion, I'm not sure what their practices are... One can only assume...

 

[theultimateend]

Ha ha, that's kind of funny... I guess?

I do have to wonder exactly what these fine folks hope to gain out of this arrangement though.

Easy, they think that it will allow them to share information without government involvement. It's pretty smart actually. Don't know how well it would work over there (I'm in the US) but since they can call it "expression of religion," they can call the religion card should the government go after their activities.

No, that won't work.

Sure, they can claim file sharing as a religious activity, but that doesn't automatically make it legal for them to break copyright law.

Or to put it another way, Orthodox Christians can baptise their babies all they like, but their priests would still get arrested for throwing other people's children in ponds.

There is another crime against children that I don't recall anyone getting imprisoned for.

So perhaps it just depends on the crime you break within the institution.

This is win. Spread the word of the great Uploader! All hail the Holy Copy Paste button!

I hope this flies in the UK...

Son, we've yet to recognise Atheism officially.

Should... Atheism be recognized officially?

~signed one who's not trolling, just curious as to your reasons behind it.

That's another question entirely. We're still calling 30 different religions Christianity for a start without bothering to differentiate between Protestant, Catholic, Methodist, Adventist, Christian Scientist...

well you sound a little bitter, which is quite sad to me.

But by your attitude I would guess that getting atheism recognized isn't about garnering respect, but more a statement on the ludicrous system and how it differentiates between "religions" and why.

Though the whole business is odd to me, seeing as how there is no such concept in America. One could argue that the state recognizes religious organizations by giving them tax exempt status, etc., but the fact we don't have a "Board of Religious Certification" or some odd thing speaks volumes about the cultural difference in how religion is treated in American versus Europe.

Atheism is not a religion, its just a poorly named state of being.

Atheism is effectively living and interacting with the "What Is" as opposed to living and believing in the "What If".

There is no faith behind it, unless we are going to argue nihililsm and say that everyone is not real and just a figment of our imaginations. Lines need to be drawn somewhere, the universe is real and thus living within it and interacting with it are not matters of faith and so not a religion.

If the only way you can get a day off a year is by faking your religion, you'd be too.

Religions, as they stand, are a label that is wrongly used by fundamentalists to justify their own desires and governments to dish out monies, without looking at the differences between them, the good they can do and the evil they can do.

Before you even go near the Cult of Scientology.

I don't recall the source but I like the quote "There are as many types of Christianity as there are Christians."

The idea (that I'm about to poorly summarize) being that Religion itself is a facade as everyone inside the group has a different and often conflicting total view of their faith.

Pirates trying to justify their illicit actions by turning it into a religion?

That's just stupid.

Quite a popular tactic in human history though.

 

[DTWolfwood]

So are the clergy of Kopimi tax exempted in sweden? XD

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

This is what we have always said in Norway: The swedes are batshit crazy

Then again i guess since you can't see God and he's supposed to distribute a bunch of stuff you can't see like love and compassion that certain parallells can be drawn, except you will actually get to see the fruits of online distribution and filesharing.

I should just found my own religion, really.

"The high priest will show you the way to beer, video games and rock n' roll"
"All hail!"

 

[AnotherAvatar]

To quote Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction:

That does it, I'm going.

 

[Mayamellissa]

you know what? If I didn't believe that there was a god and in Jesus Christ WHICH I DO!!!! ... I might just join this group. Then again I could also move to Canada which is a lot more likely.

 

[Guffe]

3000 people... wow...
In Finland you need you + 9 people and go to a house in Helsinki and say, I now officially declare this as our religion = done.
Well that's a simplified version but here I could hail a rock on my backyard with 9 friends and we could get that as our religion.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

*sigh* my biggest problem with people like you

People like me? What sort of people are those then?

Love is the Movement I adhere to. 'nough said.

And it's a pity that you've already labelled me lost - despite having no idea what belief I have. Your selfless love doesn't extend to me?

Not terribly selfless then, is it?

 

[Le_Lisra]

I think that's pretty funny.

Anyone who claims "this is not a religion", might want to research how religion happens. Or not, I'm sure.

*sigh* my biggest problem with people like you is that you're so blinded by your beliefs you barely listen to what people say.

I think the problem goes both ways.

 

[Trasken]

best religion so far IMO

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

haha, no, but "people like you" are the people who openly respond to just about everything with hostility under the assumption that anything a person says should be taken in the worst way possible.

Hostile? How was I hostile?

I'm slightly perturbed about your holier than thou attitude, but I've shown no hostility to you.

You've sighed, pitied me and laughed. Again, where is your "selfless love"? Especially when

you're so blinded by your beliefs

you don't even know what my beliefs are. You also accuse me of taking every stab I can against religion when I say

I think people just need to recognise Religion as a Belief; not an excuse and certainly not as a target.

Are you really listening to me? Or just to what you think I'm saying.

 

[C_Topher]

Are they serious? What's the point to this? This is just a massive publicity stunt that could very well undermine the validity of the piracy debate. I fully support their right to religious freedom, but this is pushing it too far. The fact remains that piracy is still illegal. What they're doing is in a similar vein as polygamists that use their religion as a shield from the law.

 

[SextusMaximus]

I like this. I like this a lot.

Don't know if it's utterly ridiculous or genius, I just know that it's awesome.

 

[ramboondiea]

well if druidism can be recognised as a religion then i dont see why this cant, there about on par with the level of bullshit they go through to get preferential treatment