Missionary Church of Kopimism

The Missionary Church of Kopimism, founded by 19-year-old philosophy student Isak Gerson, is a congregation of file sharers who claim that copying information is a sacred virtue. The Church, based in Sweden, has been officially recognized by the Swedish Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency ("kammarkollegiet") as a religious community, after three application attempts.

The followers of the religion are called Kopimists from copy me. According to the church, "In our belief, communication is sacred." No belief in gods or supernatural phenomena is mentioned on their web site. CTRL+C and CTRL+V, familiar to those with rudimentary computing skills as the shortcut keys for "Copy" and "Paste," are considered sacred symbols.

January 5, 2012, Kopimism was accepted by Sweden as a legitimate religion. The religion's association with illegal file sharing has been said to not be a sign that file sharing that steps beyond legal borders will be excused from Sweden's zero-tolerance approach to the matter.

विद्या दान (Vidya Daan), a concept in Daan, is a tenet of all Dharmic Religions that also values the sharing of information. In Christianity, it is also known as the Gift of Knowledge