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I know this type of question has been asked before, but my scenario is different.

I'm from a country where piracy doesn't matter much. In my 4 years of Electrical Engineering, almost all the books I've read are photocopied versions. Our teachers would order an original book, and then place the book at a local photocopy shop so that other students could get a photocopied version of it for as less as $3. Almost all the softwares in my electrical engineering were cracked versions. It was like a custom there.

Now, after my engineering, I joined a company, and the same scenario is there. I was given tutorials that are only licensed to watch on-line for a paid subscription. For learning a particular technology, I was given an e-book, and that wasn't purchased; the book was downloaded actually from some torrent site.

So, what I have to do now in this condition. Sometimes, I think to be obtain everything legally, but to what extent? From Windows of my laptop to Photoshop installed, everything is cracked.

Now, my question is:

Keeping in mind these circumstances, is it still Haram? And if so, how I should avoid it?

Rebecca J. Stones
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Arslan Ali
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  • Copyright has nothing to do with Haraam since once a person buys a product, he's the owner of it and can dispose of it as he wants. If he decides he wants to share it with someone else, that's his choice and his property to do so. So the issue is more related to laws of a country and not Islaam. – Sayyid Nov 25 '14 at 22:12
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    Suppose you buy the software Photoshop from Adobe; but what you are actually buying is a license to use that software just. Photoshop would always be in possession of Adobe; buying a license doesn't make us its owner. – Arslan Ali Nov 26 '14 at 03:58
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    @Sayyid : When you buy a software, you agree to their terms. One of the terms is that you can not share it with others. So its not true that you can share it with anyone. – goto Nov 26 '14 at 11:56

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Seemingly, as @goto pointed at his comment, (as a general rule) at the time that you purchase a software, legally you do agree to the terms of it. Generally, according to a term of those softwares you cannot share them with others if it is related to be used just once or just for a system (device). Hence in the mentioned case perhaps it couldn't be permissible/halal to do that.

Of course you ought to pay attention that some software programs have the ability to share them (for instance) for four systems that you can share that... Therefore at the mentioned issue it wouldn't be considered as an unlawful act to use it according to its limitation definitions (that how many system you can share it), otherwise if you try to do it more than its law definition, therefore it couldn't be permissible.

اللهم صل علی محمد و آل محمد
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