#Kopimism considered: Sophistry, sacrament or scam?
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#KOPIMISM CONSIDERED: SOPHISTRY, SACRAMENT OR SCAM? Aram Sinnreich Rutgers University School of Communication & Information NCA Conference Nov 21, 2013
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Sweden recently became the first nation officially to recognize a new religion called Kopimism, based on the principal that copying, disseminating and reconfiguring information constitutes a "sacred" act. Some argue that Kopimists are a bunch of "pirates" using religion to shield them from copyright liability. Others see it as an absurd act of political theater. In this article, I suggest that it is the crystallization of an emerging cultural value system centered around digital networks. Like copyright, and monastic Christianity before it, Kopimism represents a socioepistemological solution to the irreconcilability of traditional cultural values and emerging informatic flows.
Transcript of #Kopimism considered: Sophistry, sacrament or scam?
#KOPIMISM CONSIDERED:SOPHISTRY, SACRAMENT OR SCAM?
Aram Sinnreich Rutgers University
School of Communication & Information !
NCA Conference Nov 21, 2013
WHAT IS KOPIMISM?
KOPIMIST DOGMA 101• There is an “intrinsic value of information . . . irrespective of its content.”
• Kopimism is the “opposite of copyright religion.”
• “No Kopimist is wholly self sufficient, each being just one component of an interconnected and interdependent world”
• “Kopimi is the natural state of the universe”
• Kopimism is “just trying [to] fight against the monopolization of knowledge.”
• Copymixing > Copying
• “The internet is holy.”
SOPHISTRY?
NnEeTt� SsEeCcRrEe
Tt
Our words shall, simultaneously, sound as foolishness upon deaf ears and lovely caresses to those who see and hear, but above all: They should bite firmly into you – and your mom.!100 roads to #g-d:!004. Experiment with research chemicals.!027. Give yourself cult status, and act accordingly.!100. Be careful of burning kittens.
SACRAMENT?Copying Cooperation Quality Creativity
SCAM?“This story . . . has hoax written all over it. Let’s be clear here. This is a religion designed to circumvent piracy laws.
M.I.A.
CONCLUSION
“You who will transcribe this book, I charge you, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ … compare what you have copied against the original and correct it carefully.
“the Author of any Book … shall have the sole Right and Liberty of Printing such Book and Books for the Term of One and twenty Years”
“‘Copy and Paste what thou wilt’ shall be the whole of the law.”
THANK YOU.Aram Sinnreich Rutgers University
School of Communication & Information !
NCA Conference Nov 21, 2013
!Twitter : @aram
