The computer you are sitting infront of,has a main program known as Operating System (OS) and some other programs which you use.These
programs are developed by their respective programmers or a group of them,or sometimes they are developed by the employed programmers of
the developer companies.These developers trade their programs to other companies or directly to the customers.So,according to the Shariah
Ruling these programs are the Properties of their owners,exactly as the real life properties (house,land,money) belong to their legal
owners,(Even if these softwares dont posses any real life existence but still they are the products of the developer's work!).Just as the stealing,using,selling and changing of these real life materials is
Haraam and prohibited according to the shariah same is the case with
any Program or Software you use.That means the
copying,'Cracking',editing,selling and changing of these softwares
without the permission of the legal copyright owner will be regarded
as stealing.Which is a big Haraam and sin in the light of Islam.You
would be amazed to know that the 49% of the total software possession
in the world is pirated or cracked.You would have now realised if only
half the muslim population becomes pious and refrains from evil and
haraam 20% of the software piracy problem would get solved.(And don't
think that I am posting this from a pirated windows,i am mobile
blogging you people!!).So,Software piracy and cracking it is haraam in
Islam.Yes Islam has the answer!
(Fatwa From Mufti Ebrahim Desai S.A)
(Don't forget to comment)
Assalamualaikoum brother,
ReplyDeletewhat is the solution for the muslims who use cracked software? If i am not mistaken it is a debt in the sense that they should be paying for the software. They are using it for free. What about the people who purchased PCs and got copies of windows OS instead of the original one? What is the islamic ruling about both cases? If these people purchased later on a genuine copy of an updated version of the software, are their debts cleared off or they still have to pay for the old version of software used? Please clarify on these matters.
Thank you
RegardS,
M