copyright laws
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Peace,
If a programme, film, etc is offered by its authors/ right owners for free, then I suppose it is fine to download it/ have it for nothing. However, if other people/ organisations with no rights to the product offer it for free then it is stealing, or even double stealing.
In my country, piracy is a great industry as well, esp of CDs, films (DVDs, VHS), computer programmes, etc. One of the reasons is, of course, a very high price put on legal products (esp when compared with salaries). However, the fact that it may be called a rip-off in many cases is no justification to fight the evil with another evil... The solution would be to sort the problem by e.g. selling for fair price, not a huuuge profit...
Also, an excuse that "everybody does it" is no excuse at all!
I feel guilty myself since I use "illegal" Windows on my computer. oops oops oops but I don't buy illegal CDs or DVDs, nor download films or music from the internet... Nobody's perfect wink
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Salaams all
theres some confusion in this thread which we need to be clear on.
Piracy is making illegal copies and selling them on. I feel its theft as its there is a clear economic gain on the part of the pirate.
Copyright laws don't deal with piracy only - they deal with the creators 'right' to control what happens to their creation. Copyright law was drawn up with the good intention of protecting artists but have become a charter for corporate greed and the supression of creativity. They do not serve to protect creativity - rather they permit draconian capitalisation and benefit only those with the financial muscle to use the legal system - ie the already rich.
For more info on this subject visit - http//creativecommons.org/. These ppl are developing alternatives to the greed system.
If you are in the UK and are especially interested in copyright there is a one day conference in London on March 5th at the university of westminster.
click http//www.carte.org.uk/docs/events/conference.php?id=77So if we wanna talk about piracy then lets. But the cultural impact of copyright lawyers is far worse than people selling bootleg cds.
salaam alaykum
asdfjk
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me personally i think downloading free music from the internet is sharing since people upload the music and then people download it and i dont see how copying cd's and dvd's and selling them would be stealing, how did the theft occur? does god prohibit us from copying things or copying and selling for profit? how does god explain what theft is in the quran? maybe that's the answer
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i dont see how copying cd's and dvd's and selling them would be stealing, how did the theft occur?
peace kb
in the case of selling on a copied or pirated dvd the 'theft' which occurs is that the pirate 'steals' the business from the legitimate owner who has the licence to sell those goods. Thats my understanding. I don't like it - I'd like to pay less money for cheaper dvds - but I can't see any other way to honestly understand the economics of pirated goods.
However like you KB (and perhaps you too Mazzy?) I tend to feel that if I buy something and pass a copy onto someone without money changing hands then thats not stealing. This is the case with file sharing. But I'm not 100% certain of this - ie in my heart I have some doubts and because of the following verses I stopped downloading free music....
1184 And to Median was their brother Shu'ayb, he said "My people, serve God, you have no god besides Him, and do not give short in the measure and weight. I see you in prosperity, and I fear for you the retribution of a day that is surrounding."
1185 "And my people, give full measure and weight with justice, and do not hold back from the people what is theirs, and do not roam the land corrupting."But I do go to the library, pay the equivalent of $1 to borrow a CD and make a copy of my own use. Cos the library paid for their copy and I gave some money to use the CD whilst on loan and thus more money flows into the system. Of course under current legislation in my county that is as illegal as downloading something! So in the eyes of the state I'm a pirate. But inshallah I have remained faithful to my Creator in trying to stay within the bounds of His guidance on 1184-85.
Inshallah I'd look forward to hearing any others views on these matters. I have strong ones on copyright issues but these are hardly cut-and-dried matters...
salaams
asdfjk -
Peace all,
I agree with the sentiments above. If someone is not trafficking in 'pirated' material by selling it for profit then in my opinion it's fair use. This material is available through radio, television, and libraries
Things I use seriously and regularly I buy. My operating system is paid for and so is my word processor, spreadsheet programs etc. There are some things I use irregularly and I have some copies of 'pirated' software in this regard. Have I stolen? I would not have bought the software in the first place - and used a lesser non-commercial product.
As someone said above there is much corporate greed in this area. A piece of software like Windows for example only takes a certain amount of money to develop and maintain. These companies such as Microsoft are making many multiples of the cost of development and maintenance.
I think an interesting analogy occurs in terms of nurseries and plants/seeds for sale. If you buy a plant once then potentially you can make 'copies' of this plant by collecting seeds or cuttings from that plant and giving them to friends etc.
Why doesn't the nursery person own the rights to those plants? In some cases these plants are carefully bred varieties that have taken years of work on the part of the nurseryman. But they only have the rights to the sale of the original product. Once they sell it; that's where their rights end even when the subsequent plants are just as good as the first.
In the case of MP3 songs, software or movies, books - the copiers are not getting the disc, written material and manuals, or quality of the original product - they are accepting a lower quality item in every case. If the products weren't so outrageously priced then people may indeed buy them.
Copyright is a controversial issue in some cases. The Hepatitis C virus genome for example is copyrighted - so that people who want to work on a cure must pay licensing fees for it. I personally am against this form of copyright as well as patent laws which are overly restrictive. The USA has been pushing for extension of its copyright laws to the world. Whereas the usual time in Australia was the author's life + 50 years as a result of the US-Australia free trade agreement this has been changed to author's life +70 years.
In February 2004 the Australian government announced that protection in Australia would be extended to life plus seventy years, as part of implementation of the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement. Legislation to give effect to the announcement attracted some criticism, with opposition by the Democrats and others in the Australian Senate, but the copyright provisions of the US Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act 2004 passed following the 2004 federal election and are now in effect.
The UK has also followed this trend and material that was out of copyright has suddenly become copyrighted again - one famous example is Joyce's work. It is greed rather than any intellectually compelling argument that has led to these changes. Do not be surprised if the interval is increased to author's life + 100 years some time in the future.
Regards.
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However like you KB (and perhaps you too Mazzy?) I tend to feel that if I buy something and pass a copy onto someone without money changing hands then thats not stealing. This is the case with file sharing. But I'm not 100% certain of this - ie in my heart I have some doubts and because of the following verses I stopped downloading free music....
1184 And to Median was their brother Shu'ayb, he said "My people, serve God, you have no god besides Him, and do not give short in the measure and weight. I see you in prosperity, and I fear for you the retribution of a day that is surrounding."
1185 "And my people, give full measure and weight with justice, and do not hold back from the people what is theirs, and do not roam the land corrupting."I feel that if the quran never touched on licensing and copyrighting and anything dealing with that subject then how can it be stealing? if i go and buy a cd or dvd then want to make copies for whatever reason it should be perfectly fine cuz i own it, i didnt steal it, and if god never mentioned anything in quran about copyrights and licenses then i would think its not stealing because god never said obey these laws, if i copy and cell a cd im getting paid for the service. i think as long as you don't lie and say they are the orginal then you are giving full measure
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if i copy and cell a cd im getting paid for the service. i think as long as you don't lie and say they are the orginal then you are giving full measure
peace kb
and if I steal your car and rent it out to people overnight then return it in the morning thats ok too - cos Allah never forbade overnight car theft and I'm not claiming to own the car I'm just getting paid for the service.....
The Hepatitis C virus genome for example is copyrighted - so that people who want to work on a cure must pay licensing fees for it. I personally am against this form of copyright as well as patent laws which are overly restrictive. The USA has been pushing for extension of its copyright laws to the world. Whereas the usual time in Australia was the author's life + 50 years as a result of the US-Australia free trade agreement this has been changed to author's life +70 years..
Peace truth
yeah, the patenting of genetic material - now that is theft! And I agree with you on the extention of copyright - how are James Joyce's creative rights protected by this? The guy died in 1941!
salaams
asdfjk -
Peace all,
I believe that in reality and in general, anything that exists/grown in nature (by Natural Law) is not a copyright, such as plants. Roughly speaking, a copyright is an invention of a product by an inventor unique to nature as well as to other already invented products. A product can be made similar to the already invented product but not a ditto and marked as copyright.
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if i copy and cell a cd im getting paid for the service. i think as long as you don't lie and say they are the orginal then you are giving full measure
peace kb
and if I steal your car and rent it out to people overnight then return it in the morning thats ok too - cos Allah never forbade overnight car theft and I'm not claiming to own the car I'm just getting paid for the service.....
your example doesn't compare to what were talking about, your actually taking something from ones posession as in mine i am copying something
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Peace,
respectfully bro - its not about the copying - its about the selling on.
What I'm saying is that in selling on a pirate dvd you are taking away someone elses sale of that same product.
I believe that if the product is not copyrighted, then one can copy/edit the same product and sell, unless permission is needed/granted to do so. It's best to read/know the fine lines. A pirate is basically a cheater/robber regardless of copyright laws.