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Is it permissible to take pictures of landscapes and mosques from the Internet and sell them, and is it permissible to sell programs with stripped code, such as Windows?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Information published on the Internet belongs to its owners. Most websites permit the use of their materials for personal benefit only, not for commercial purposes. Copyrights and intellectual property rights are protected for their owners in Islamic law. Therefore, it is not permissible to copy topics from the Internet and sell them, as this infringes upon the rights of others, unless the rights holder grants permission. As for selling programs with their code stripped, it is not permissible. A group of scholars has prohibited copying computer programs without the permission of their owners, whether the owner is a Muslim or a non-Muslim non-combatant. However, if one needs to copy them due to the unavailability of the original copy or the inability to purchase it, it is permissible to copy them for personal use only, provided that this is not used as a means of earning or trade, and one must limit it to the extent of the need. Some scholars have permitted purchasing items that have been extensively copied and circulated among people, where it is highly probable that the producing company has achieved a reasonable profit.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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