Is it permissible to play an old video game that is out of print from the producing company and no longer available for purchase from reliable sources, knowing that it was originally sold and not free, and that playing it will not affect religious or worldly duties?
If electronic games are free from شرعي (-compliant) prohibitions and do not distract from an obligation, then there is no harm in them. However, playing them excessively is a waste of time. If a company stops producing a game and abandons it, this suggests permission to benefit from it without [observing] rights. As for a game simply being out of stock from the company without permission to copy, this does not permit overriding the company's rights or pirating it. This is because the majority of contemporary scholars state that it is impermissible to copy pirated programs whose owners preserve their rights, except with their permission.
Summary from Ftawy's records · added here
Reviewed by El Fatwa's sharia committee.
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- Original fatwa ID
- 166434
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- Text
- Summary from Ftawy's records, reviewed by El Fatwa's sharia committee.
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