Imprisoned TPB Founder Fights for His Religious Rights

Peter Sunde, though staying in a Swedish prison for the next few months, somehow keeps making his voice heard. Recently he had a dispute with authorities over food, and now he has filed a new complaint, because he was denied a meeting with a representative from the “Pirate” Church of Kopimism.

The first few weeks of the imprisonment of one of The Pirate Bay founders passed silently, but by the end of June Sunde’s spokesman had to make his voice heard on his prison conditions.

Since Peter Sunde has been both vegetarian and vegan, he found it difficult to find a proper meal during his incarceration. He had to write to the authorities and complain that he lost 11 pounds in the first month because his needs weren’t met. Although we do not know whether he got his vegetarian meal or not after this, just one month later the young man was making his displeasure known again – this time over his religious rights.

Several years ago a group of self-confessed pirates made their beliefs recognized as a religion in Sweden, calling it the Church of Kopimism. Back in 2012 it was officially approved by the authorities. But when Peter Sunde tried to exercise his right to meet with a representative of his chosen religion in prison, he was refused.

TPB founder complained again, and since Kopimism is an official religion, the authorities may have little choice but to react positively. However, this throws up an interesting privacy-related question that Peter himself mused a few years ago. He said that in some religions, when you talk to a priest in the congregation, the latter has to keep what was said confidential. Moreover, this practice is even respected in some countries as law, and the courts there can’t make the priest testify.

Sunde said at the time this could be the thing he loved the most with Kopimism as a religion – that they could have yet another form of peer-to-peer communication: Priest2Priest, with no legal right for anyone to listen in to the conversation.

Although it seems unlikely that The Pirate Bay founder will be allowed an online “encrypted confession” with a Kopimism priest, The Church of Kopimism’s legal status can cause some headaches and dilemmas for the authorities as the respond to the vegetarian’s complaint.