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Peter Sunde says prison bosses must let him speak to file-sharing priest

By | Published on Monday 28 July 2014

Peter Sunde

So, Peter Sunde, one time spokesman for The Pirate Bay, which he co-founded, has found another reason to complain about his current incarceration, this time on religious grounds. Well, quasi-religious grounds anywhere but Sweden, which, alas, is where he’s currently locked up.

As much previously reported, Sunde is currently in jail after being found guilty of enabling rampant copyright infringement, through his involvement in the Bay, in the Swedish courts back in 2009. He evaded prison for a while by pursuing every possible appeals option, and once those were exhausted simply by avoiding Sweden. But then earlier this year Swedish police caught up with him in the country and threw him in the slammer.

Sunde has previously complained that the prison he’s in, the mid-level security facility Västervik Norra, is too severe given the nature of his crime. Which is probably true, though given the lengths he went to in order to avoid his jail time, perhaps the powers that be fear there is a risk Sunde would try to flee a low-security prison.

His latest complaint, though, relates to the prison authority’s inability to arrange a meeting between him and a representative of the Church Of Kopimism, which is a club for fans of free Lady Gaga tracks and ‘Glee’ downloads masquerading as a religion. Except in Sweden it has actually been recognised as a religious group, meaning Sunde’s demands to liaise with a rep from the ‘church’ are legit.

Prison bosses say they don’t have a minister from Sunde’s church on hand to meet him, but he’s bounced back with a demand that they set up a Skype call with one instead. According to Torrentfreak, he wrote in a letter to the authorities: “The board of spiritual care doesn’t have any representative for the Kopimist faith with whom they cooperate and therefore the Prison And Probation Service should provide permission for electronic contact with representatives from the Kopimist faith to believers”.

It’s not clear how genuine Sunde is being in these prison correspondences, or whether he’s just playing with the system, he having been known to issue rather playful statements during his stint as the Bay’s media man. Either way, he’s ensuring nothing remains dull about the ongoing Pirate Bay saga.



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