Is it moral to priate stuff?

I have been wondering about this question since early 2020. I never encouraged piracy (may be I did unintentionally and I seek Allah’s forgiveness) even before 2020 but I used to pirate books and software prior to that myself (May Allah forgive me for this as well). But once I got familiarised with open source and linux world I started to question my past.

In fact, I reached out to my teachers as well because I was in this congnitive dissonance. I could not digest the fact that whatever I am learning is by stealing the works (books) of other humans and whether any earning based on this knowledge can be classified as halal rizq or not.

Today, If you are feeling the same and want to learn more about this issue then you should continue reading this article. I would like to add a disclaimer here that I am not an expert on the subject of Islamic Jurisprudence so take my opinions with a pinch of salt.

Is priacy stealing?

Yes, Piracy is stealing. What’s stealing? In my view, stealing is to take or use any possession (material or immaterial) of a person without his / her explicit permission. Material possessions can be things like books or software written by someone and immaterial posessions can be things like ideas of a person.

So, when you are downloading some software or book which is an intellectual property of that person; are you doing so with his / her explicit permission? If the answer to this question is NO then my friend you have been doing stealing intentionally or unintentionallly. What should you do now? Taubah: a) Recognize that what you were doing was wrong. b) Don’t do it again and if you can then undo the damage. c) A firm resolution with yourself that you will not get back to it again.

What does Muslim scholars say about piracy?

Almost all Ulema would agree that a person should not mass distribute material or immaterial possesion of a person without his / her explicit permission irrespective of that fact whether you acquired that possesion by purchase or not with one exception; that is if they agreed upon this during purchase.

The Contract

If during purchase it was agreed upon by both parties a) buyer and b) seller that the buyer has the right to mass produce it then obviously its fine to share it (again depending on the exact contract terms). Buying something from someone is basically a form of a contract. So the terms of the contract must be respected and if there is an ambiguity then it should be rectified by discussion rather than exploiting that ambiguity for your advantage.

Can I share a book or software that I purchased with some of my friends?

If during purchase it was decided then yes you can. If it was not decided then there is an ambiguity and you should contact the owner and clarify the situation and ask for explicit permission before doing so.

Does me buying a book or software makes me the owner?

Depends on the contract of purchase. Again, if there is an ambiguity you should ask the person you bought it from. Ideally, this should be discussed before the purchase to avoid such inconveniences and problems.

Mass distribution is unethical and immoral

So far, we have established that mass distributing someone’s work (for both commercial or non-commercial purposes) without his / her explicit permission even if you have purchased it, is not a moral thing to do.

Personal non-commercial use of pirated stuff

The trickier part where Muslim scholars are divided is whether or not can you download something that is available for free publicly on internet for non-commercial personal use?

Some Muslim Scholars that allow downloading books and software from internet for personal use argue that you were not the one who stole those books and published them on internet. So as long as you are not mass distributing them the proof of burden on the Judgement Day will not be on you but instead on the person who put them on internet at the first place. It is to be noted that these scholars allow only non-commercial personal use with the condition that you will not be mass distributing or sharing them in any shape or form.

There are Muslim Scholars which discourage downloading pirated books and software from internet even for personal use. They argue that your downloading of such material encourages the person running such piracy sites to publish more of such material and content because he is getting attraction and traffic on his site which he can then monetize.

In short, according to some scholars you can download books or softwares from internet that are pirated copies of someone’s else work as long as you dont mass distribute or share them with anyone else and use them personally in non-commercially way only. There are other scholars who totally discourage this because your downloading of priated stuff encourages the site owner to continue piracy or do more piracy. So, by downloading such material you are also contributing your part in this sin.

So, if you are pirating stuff for personal please don’t encourage others to do the same and if someone is asking for a resource make sure you point him to a legitimate sources and let him decide if he wants to pirate it or purchase it. Don’t do the devil’s work of sharing pirated links! You might get questioned about this on the Day of Judgement. So be mindful of the actions you do.

Why pirate stuff when there are free alternatives available?

Why at the first place you need to pirate something that has a free legitimate alternative available that you can download for free? Why go down the wrong path? Ask yourself this next time when you are about to pirate something.

Don’t sail the black ship

Here are some tips that can help you live a life that is free of piracy:

• Use Linux instead of Windows. Linux is a free and open source operating system and by switching to it you will be saving yourself from a lot of trouble of pirating stuff.
• Pirated software most of the times have malwares in them that can cause harm to your system. By switching to open source softwares not only you will be avoiding this potential harm but in fact you will get much better performance as proprietory software has too much bloatware and adware in it.
• Try to find books with Creative Commons license. These are the books that author has explicitly given permission for to use for free. There are many types of Creative Commons licenses some even allow commercial use. Learn about these licenses.
• For tutorials there are tons of MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) sites that offer free quality content with some limitation. For example you might have to pay if you want to get a certificate but content itself would be free.Youtube is also a great platform to learn new stuff.
• When purchasing an item especially digital ones .i.e. softwares & ebooks ask explicitly from the author whether he is transferring ownerships rights to you or not? This will save you from a lot of problems down the line in future.