Sweden: Piracy Is Not A Religion

[Dragonsummoner]

I have my religion, and I have "special" protection on the media I produce...
I believe that expansion in that is in order, or this will be my shortest post.
My religion is the worship of demons, but not the Evil kind (mostly).
If they actually allow this religion, then I will respond by utilising a virus that activates
upon copying files from the disk. Mwuh ha ha ha!

Some other points:
1. If this gets through, expect a huge drop in the games/books/movies released.
2. I cost *Alot* money to set up a studio ideal for recording sound for release on digital media.
Were talking high gain mics, sound proofing, auto-tuning software. For games you have to pay the dev team and buy the computer systems with the software and power. Movies require props, payments to actors, travel fees. And all require disks to burn and sell (unless DigitallyDistributed).
3. If the companies make less money, they fire their staff. This will lead to major unemployment, which will put a drain on goverment resources. This could lead to mass inflation on essential resources such as food and water, therfore starvation and dehydration will be on the rise. If the situation gets out of control then conflict will be inevitable. This will escalate until global thermal nuclear war erupts.

Conclusion: I am feeling gloomy today. Oh well, time to play some flash games

Also this song might be relevant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGM8PT1eAvY

 

[DEAD34345]

Another point that annoys me is that these special exemptions for religions exist in the first place. How is it any better for Christians or Muslims or Buddhists to be able to completely side-step the law? They have no more right to be exempt from aspects of the law than these software pirates do, so why should they be treated differently? If anything the pirates might at least raise some awareness for these legal issues, and cause them to be fixed.

Explain to me through examples how Christians, Muslims or Buddhists "side-step the law"?


Aside from a few tax exemptions.

That's what this entire thread is about. Religions are immune to certain privacy laws, which is why the pirates want their religion to be officially accepted. It would allow them to file-share in total secrecy, and theoretically all the real religions could be illegally file-sharing in total secrecy right now too.

 

[aps1984]

Yep. The Swedish Government should also legalize cults which wish to perform ritual human sacrifice. Just because a criminal act is "part of your religion" doesn't make it not criminal.

Yea, murdering defenseless people and sharing information is the same thing, just like pushing someone in the pool and running them over with a train.

But it's all a-ok as long as we get to buy more poor quality shit forking over our money to people who don't need it.

Do you need games ? No. Then you dont have to buy them. If you hate them, dont buy them.
People need it, in case you nt know, devs are normal people, with families, bills and they need to eat and drink.

But if you pirate something you weren't going to steal anyway there's absolutely no harm done.
It's 100% morally acceptable because there's no victim. People on the anti-piracy side of the argument always seem to forget this.

 

[Nabirius]

Well.... Piracy is Illegal and I assume the files they where copying were copyright protected. and a religion that is about something illegal should not be allowed. The same reason why practicing old norse rituals are illegal (atleast the ones with human sacrifice)

Yeah but the US government has allowed some native American tribes to continue using illegal hallucinogenics like peyote. I get that this is Sweden where it is illegal to chew gum in public but seriously.

 

[DeXusLM]

How is this different from any other religion in that they believe in something others don't.
Aside from the obvious scrutiny I think this is just government oppression and I am extremely anti religious.
I believe far more in someones rights than what the majority may think of them.

And as for anyone being above the law because of what they believe in wtf no.

As for looking for a loophole to do something illegal this is a problem with the system not the people attempting it no matter how extreme that may sound.

Give these people whatever there entitled to, sounds like the Swedish government likes to pick and choose different laws for everyone.

And yeah piracy exists no crap it happens my god but screwing with peoples rights is far far more dangerous.
Who knows what they might not like next and try and ban, far too many things to list.

 

[Arehexes]

Hey this religion means a lot to me. I always pray to that might floppy thou must copy.

 

[Stealthygamer]

OT: I was hoping for this to be about pastafarianism not illegal downloading

Me too, man. Me too.

I was totally prepared to debate the old Pirate vs Ninja on a religious basis but instead I find filesharing Swedes.
This deception can not stand!

Wait, we should start a religion of ninja's who practice the stealing of other people's forum posts to combat the pirate religion

 

[Paragon Fury]

So they're trolling, and don't understand why people don't to put up with it?

Internet, you disappoint me.

 

[MarsProbe]

Well.... Piracy is Illegal and I assume the files they where copying were copyright protected. and a religion that is about something illegal should not be allowed. The same reason why practicing old norse rituals are illegal (atleast the ones with human sacrifice)

Christianity involves paedophilia. Shall we stop them too?

Good heavens, that came quite out of the leftfield! I have no idea what Christianity you've been hearing about (other than the one that exists in your mind, perhaps) but I think you need to take another look at your sources if that's what you believe.

 

[Cleariously]

I was under the impression of these types of religions were "You can believe what you want, but you can't do what you want."

 

[DEAD34345]

Having certain privileges under the law and side-stepping the law are two different things..

Ok, so I don't think religions should have "certain privileges" under the law... my point remains the same regardless of the syntax.

When a group specifically aims to create a faux religion for the sole purpose of conducting illegal activity it's a little inappropriate. Especially since such a breach would open the door for any criminal organization to try and similarly create a religion to conduct their prostitution or drug smuggling or extortion in privacy.

That's where I think you're wrong, the problem is that the door is already open. You can't fairly say one religion is legitimate and one isn't, because such things are not quantifiable. You can't prove that the Followers of File-Sharing (or whatever their actual name is) are any more legitimate with their religion than Christians or Muslims, so there is nothing stopping them from gaining these privileges. Yes, criminal organizations could make a religion and gain legal privileges, so let's hope people notice these ridiculous exemptions and get rid of them.

Not to mention that I think the presence of the exemptions in this day and age is disgusting in itself. Even licensed counsellors are required by law to report anything illegal spoken to them, yet religious figures are not. Just because you belong to a religion doesn't mean you're any better than anyone else, it doesn't mean you're any more trustworthy than anyone else, and it shouldn't mean you get more rights than anyone else.

(Just in case anyone was going to take this the wrong way, note that I'm not disrespecting religious people or religious figures, I just think they should have the same rights as everyone else, no more and no less.)

 

[razer17]

File-sharing =/= piracy. This is supposed to be news, not conjecture.

There are plenty of legal torrents out there.

 

[DEAD34345]

Not to mention that I think the presence of the exemptions in this day and age is disgusting in itself. Even licensed counsellors are required by law to report anything illegal spoken to them, yet religious figures are not. Just because you belong to a religion doesn't mean you're any better than anyone else, it doesn't mean you're any more trustworthy than anyone else, and it shouldn't mean you get more rights than anyone else.

You're not talking about rights you're talking about exemptions from public duty to report illegal activity.

Either way, the law is just words on paper. It's up to the people to interpret it and in a case like this they can say "your religion is not a true religion, application rejected" and move on. Which, they've already done of course. So quantifiable is not an issue. As for the element of human bias, that's why you have committees and jurors to give varying viewpoints on whether something is a religion or not.

At what point does it become right that religious people are treated differently by law to regular people? They have the right to not report illegal activity, regular people do not, this is wrong.

Not to mention that a system like that is inherently abusable, simply because it relies on people's opinion. Everyone one is going to have a different opinion on what makes a "legitimate" religion, so how can you say who is right and who is wrong?

Is Christianity a legitimate religion?

What about Satanism?

What if the Followers of File-Sharing actually end up getting a real following, with people who believe in it... will it still be denied legitimacy?

The law should be clear and absolute, and it should not treat people differently based on their religious beliefs. These exemptions are neither, and I think they should have been removed a long time ago.

 

[9Darksoul6]

Fucking brilliant!
That would be the most awesome thing in recent history... so amazingly genial.

 

[Dogstile]

Well.... Piracy is Illegal and I assume the files they where copying were copyright protected. and a religion that is about something illegal should not be allowed. The same reason why practicing old norse rituals are illegal (atleast the ones with human sacrifice)

Last I checked, piracy was legal in Sweden. Copyright means nothing in other country's, which is why Valve can't do anything about the TF2 ripoff being developed in china.