Date : 30-04-2024

Question :

There are specialized educational platforms that sell courses to students, and in order to watch a course, the student must purchase it for a specific sum. There are also some channels on social media that leak these sessions from the platforms and publish them for free viewing. Is it permissible for students to watch these courses for free without distributing or selling them, only for educational benefit?


The Answer :

All perfect praise be to Allah the Lord of the Worlds. May His peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Mohammad and upon all his family and companions.


In principle, intellectual property rights are considered fixed rights for their owners, so it is not permissible to sell or distribute them to the public without their permission. The Islamic Fiqh Council, in its fifth session held in Kuwait in 1405 AH (1988 CE), issued a resolution regarding intellectual property rights, such as copyrights and inventions. The resolution stated: "Trade names, commercial titles, trademarks, copyrights, inventions, or innovations are private rights for their owners. They have gained significant economic value in contemporary customs to finance them, and these rights are respected by Islamic law, so it is not permissible to infringe upon them."


Lectures that are prepared, organized, and made available to students for a fee are considered copyrighted material, and it is not permissible to infringe upon these rights. Publishing such lectures to the public is not allowed without the permission of the platform or course supervisor, as these lectures are the intellectual property of their creators, and disseminating them without authorization would harm them, which is prohibited in Islamic law.


Similarly, it is not permissible to watch these lectures after they have been published on social media platforms for the public if the viewer is aware that these lectures are owned by the platform and have not been authorized for publication. This would amount to assisting in sin and aggression. However, if someone is unaware of these facts, they are excused. And Allah the Almighty knows best knows best.