Islam does not allow pirated software, book downloads: Turkey’s top religious body

Oktay Ensari KAYSERİ - Doğan News Agency

AP Photo

Downloading pirated software and books on the Internet is not permissible according to Islam, Turkey’s top religious body has announced.

The Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) was responding to a citizen’s question on its website on Jan. 27, which asked whether “downloading software, books and music is halal.”

The Diyanet's reply stressed that the owner of the item must have permitted the download in order for it to be deemed permissible according to the Islam, because the Quran puts emphasis on the value of a person’s labor.

“The Prophet [Muhammad] also stressed the importance of paying for one’s labor on several occasions,” it said, warning that “[property] rights violations [are still common] as technology develops and human labor has started to appear in more diverse forms.”

“Such unfair acts [such as downloading pirated software] not only usurp the individuals’ rights, they also discourage people who work in those sectors from creating new products, turning the matter into a public rights violation in a broader sense,” it added.