Sharing e-books online

13-2-2011 | IslamWeb

Question:

assalam aleykum I would like to know, what is the ruling concerning sharing ebooks online. If I buy an original ebook from lets say amazon.com, then after am finished with it I store it online to share with anyone who needs to download. Do I own all the rights after buying this book and can do whatever I want with, including sharing with people or am supporsed to follow the international law of copyright?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

Copyrights are reserved by their owners as we clarified in Fatwa 82812.

Therefore, if the author or publisher forbids the publishing of his books in this manner, then it is an obligation to abide by this otherwise it is transgressing a reserved right that is confirmed by the Sharee’ah. The copyright international laws fall under what we have mentioned, i.e. it is prohibited to publish or sell copyrighted material except with prior permission of the author or publisher.

Allaah Knows best.