Is it permissible to download or watch religious and non-religious materials from the internet, given the presence of the phrase "All rights reserved" on some websites, and is this considered a violation of rights, and what is the ruling on one who does so?
Trade names, business addresses, trademarks, copyrights, inventions, and innovations are private rights belonging to their owners. They hold significant financial value according to Islamic law, and it is not permissible to infringe upon them. The phrase "All rights reserved" signifies the author's, website's, or programmer's right to financial and intellectual benefit. Accordingly, it is not permissible to copy a book, scientific material, or program whose rights are reserved without the owners' permission, unless they explicitly state the permissibility of copying and downloading for personal use, not for commercial gain. The fact that some websites infringe upon the rights of others, or offer their services for free while prohibiting commercial use, does not affect this ruling. If it is not highly probable that the material was copied without permission, then there is no harm in benefiting from it. As for quoting from scientific material, there is no harm in it, provided that the source from which it was quoted is cited and plagiarism is avoided.
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