Is it permissible to study from university textbooks that are suspected of being pirated, given that they bear the phrase "All rights reserved"?
Source: FtawySummary from Ftawy's records · added here Sep 2, 2026
Mere doubt as to whether books are copyrighted does not prevent benefiting from them, because the original principle is that the university owns them or there is permission to copy. However, if you are certain or strongly believe that they are copied without the owners' permission, then the prevailing is to uphold copyright absolutely. If the reserved rights include all forms of utilization, then studying from them is not permissible. But if the purpose of the rights is only to prevent commercial printing, then it is permissible to benefit from them for study purposes.
Summary from Ftawy's records · added here
Reviewed by El Fatwa's sharia committee.
Read the full answer on Ftawyhttps://ftawy.com/en/questions/151614
Where this answer came from
- Source platform
- Ftawy
- Original fatwa ID
- 151614
- Added here
- . This is when the answer was added to El Fatwa, not the fatwa's date.
- Text
- Summary from Ftawy's records, reviewed by El Fatwa's sharia committee.
- Read the full ruling
- Read the full answer on Ftawy