Copyrights issues !

The issue of copyrights is complex and confusing.

There are differences of opinions and thus, i had to decide what would be best.

Obviously, I do not like to infringe on the rights of authors. Therefore, all what is on site is referenced to its owner if we took it from other sites and not a word changed. And we put the link to encourage our readers to go and get more good articles from that website. If we do not put a link, it means that the website in question might have some questionable materials (ie. bidah books, sectarism etc...)


I do not condone people who take the work of someone, change one or two words and appropriate it for themselves. Or someone who can afford and will not pay because they are mean, or worse, who publish works for cheaper and lesser quality to make unfair competition for the rightful publishers ( it is not fair ).

I agree that the authors have the right to retribution on their work. But I sincerely believe that my little library here will not make a difference to their earnings.

On the other hand, we have to think of sisters who are not so fortunate, and have barely the money they need for housekeeping,or may not have money for leisure, whatever the reason, they may not be able to go to the bookshop and buy books but can access the net (but not be able to buy online either).

Should not we try to reach these sisters ? it is why we have made the Private Library and in particular, the Bookshelf.

In this section, most of the books , if not all, are typed by us , or scanned and uploaded. It is why we ask that no material from the Private Library be copied, unless it is something widely and freely available on the Net.

Whenever possible, we ask the author's permission. But the idea is that if you lent a book to a sister, you would not phone or fax/email the publisher to ask if you can lend the book to your neighbour, would you ?

Quote :

Here, at the Sisters Bookroom, our intention is to inform, not to appear knowledgeable.

here is a vast range of Islamic rulings regarding copyrights.



http://www.bakkah.net/interactive/q&a/aamb080-copyrights-translations-intellectual-property.htm

http://kalamullah.com/copyright.html

http://www.islam-qa.com/en/ref/72848

http://www.ummah.com/islam/taqwapalace/copyrights2.pdf

http://www.islam-qa.com/en/ref/21927/copy%20right

http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?cid=1119503545794&pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaEAskTheScholar

you can see that I gave the matter some thought.

What I understood is that Quran, Hadith cannot be covered by copyrights. As the work of past authors/scholars who are deceased. As for the rest, as I said, we ''lend'' our books.

but if you disapprove, then do not use our Library and set up a Sadaqah fund to help those who cannot afford books. And do not forget to give books as gifts to those you know cannot spare the money .
And for those who can afford it, please, whatever you do, go and buy hard copies of the books you read here or anywhere on the Net. Because a hard copy is for good. A website is not, the page can be removed tomorrow, or anyone can make typos and skip lines, even when scanning, pages can be skipped, or even, Aouthou Billah, change word intentionally. And do not think ''because I can read it for free, why should I buy it?'', this is not a good attitude. The internet is a gift if used wisely, but it is not for Uncle Scrooge's pleasure to save more dollars.

wa aleikoum salam wa rahmatoullah wabarakatou

Khadija