Copying material from internet for history assignment

4-11-2017 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamu alaykum. I am a student. I have to do an assignment about a historic subject. I know that plagiarism is forbidden. Nevertheless, if I copy materials from the internet for this assignment, is this prohibited considering that history is a fact that is widely known and not an idea that requires any personal thought or input? May Allah bless you.
Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) is His slave and Messenger.

The general rule is that intellectual property rights and other moral rights are preserved and owned by their owners, and it is not permissible to transgress them by piracy and the like; this is the decision issued by the Islamic Fiqh Academy and other scientific councils.

However, this does not mean that it is forbidden to benefit from everything that is written and published on the internet. Rather, what is forbidden is to violate publishing rights, such as downloading and publishing pirated books without the permission of the rightful owners, etc., or to quote from research papers, articles, and scientific studies and attribute that to oneself and not to their owners and so forth.

Allah knows best.

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