Violating copyrights of material that contains prohibited things

29-11-2015 | IslamWeb

Question:

What should a person do if he broke the copyright laws but those copyrighted materials had haram things in it, for example books describing love and games containing music (although the user was unaware of the fact that music was haram, and it might have been possible to mute the music; most importantly, the user did not even care about the status of copyright in Islam)

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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. {C}

The scholarly view according to the Islamic academies and reliable fatwa councils, such as the Council of Senior Scholars and Islamic Fiqh Academy, is that intellectual rights are recognized and preserved by the sharee'ah for their holders; it is impermissible to infringe on such rights. Hence, whoever infringes on copyrights bears a sin for it; it is incumbent on him to repent to Allaah of such a sin. The same applies to whoever listens to music. If the doer is ignorant of the impermissibility of violating copyrights and listening to music, then we hope that he bears no sin for it. Please refer to fatwa 86527 about the conditions of sincere repentance.

It should be noted, though, that the fact that the doer is ignorant of the impermissibility of violating such rights does not mean that he is not liable for compensating or seeking the pardon of the wronged person if that is possible. He should compensate the wronged person for the damages and loss, even if indirectly. For more benefit, please refer to fatwa 284746.

As for the prohibited material as per the sharee'ah, there is no financial liability for whatever is damaged of such property.

Allaah knows best.