Copying Religiously – Kopimism : About the Symbol of the Worlds Newest Relegion

And I was wondering, how  the worlds population managed to touch seven billion, with nobody feeling the need for a new religion to keep up with the citizenry (there is heavy sarcasm at work here if you didn’t notice). Apparently someone did. And thus was born a new religion ‘Kopimism’ (copy+me+ism, get it?), the religion where you copy (I’d sure like to try that out for exams’ sake). Their philosophy is something like this:

* All knowledge to all
* The search for knowledge is sacred
* The circulation of knowledge is sacred
* The act of copying is sacred

In our belief, communication is sacred. Communication needs to be respected. It is a direct sin to monitor and eavesdrop on people.

We challenge all copyright believers – most of which have a great deal of influence in politics, and who derive their power by limiting people’s lives and freedom. What they most of all want to limit the knowledge.

                                                                                                                                     - Official Website

I see some strong PIPA and SOPA rebels.

And this, is their sacred symbol of sorts:

The caption they’ve given to it just takes the symbol to a whole new level

This little pyramid, termed Kopimi, is supposed to be the exact opposite of a copyright symbol. It is similar to the CC0 license created by Creative Commons, except the major difference being that the symbol encourages copying. The work bearing a kopimi symbol can be copied for whatever purpose, commercial or non-commercial (like people weren’t already doing that). The Kopimi concept and logo was created by Ibi Kopimi Botani (Ibrahim Botani) back in 2005.

Although the origins are unclear, the pyramid in the middle is supposed to signify the values of kopimism philosophy according to common interpretation.  The pixelated ‘K’ in the middle would obviously be a reference to the name of the religion. It is not all in all a very attractive symbol although it’s meaning and usage would override this little hindrance.

Kopimi may be put on homepages or blogs, in books, in software, as sound logos in music, or whatever. This may be very well and all, but I’m skeptical about this copying and still believe in originality of thoughts and ideas. But each to his own.

The Kopimi page contains various versions of the Kopimi logo, and explains that the logo is a symbol showing that the work is allowed to be copied.

Oh, and by the way, all those ‘kopimi’s up there don’t signify my consent to copy my stuff. Just saying…