Respected shaykhs, Assalaamu alaikum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh. I am a member of Islamic Audiobooks Forum (http://islamicaudiobooks.webs.com), a website whose members try to record authentic Islamic books for spreading knowledge. This is like what the Saudi Ministry of Education is doing in cooperation with alukah.net Recently, someone said to me that it may not be halaal to make audiobook recordings of Islamic books (written by classical or contemporary salafee scholars) and making them available for free on the internet for the benefit of Muslims! Is this really the case? What if the publisher of the book being recorded has written "(C) All rights reserved..."? Is this meant to prevent other publishers from printing it and making money from it or other writers from stealing their work? Or does this also include recording the book for personal use and for the benefit of Muslims without any worldly or monetary gain whatsoever? Also, is there any major difference between reading a beneficial book aloud to listeners in school, in the masjid or in a book club and recording the book and making it available for free? May Allaah reward you all. Was-salaam, Your brother in Islam, Rasheed Ahmed Auckland, New Zealand

All perfect praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.

There is no doubt that in principle this endeavour is good and its objective is noble as it is spreading knowledge and making it easy among the people. We ask Allaah to accept from the doer and reward him greatly.

As regards your question, if the copyrights are not reserved nor prohibited, then it is permissible to record these books and make them available for download.

However, if the copyrights are reserved, then the scholars differed greatly in opinion about this. Some are of the view that it is absolutely permissible to copy; some permitted it provided it is for personal use without trading with it or taking a profit for it; and some prohibited taking benefit of these rights except with prior permission of their owners.

The decree of the Fiqh Assembly reads: “The rights of compilation of infomation, patent and invention are Islamically reserved, and their owners have the right to dispose of them as they wish, and it is not permissible to transgress those rights; Allaah Knows best.”

For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 149447, 8766 and 90734.

On this issue, we in Islamweb adopt this last opinion which we consider to be the preponderant opinion, because rights of compilation of information, patent and invention are acquired intellectual property which are protected with the general evidence of the Sharee’ah, and it is not permissible to dispose of them in any manner except with prior permission of their owners.

Based on this, we are of the view that you should not publish books whose owner or publisher is known except with his permission. Indeed, seeking permission is an easy matter – Allaah Willing – and it could be obtained by contacting the owner of this copyright and seeking his consent.

Allaah Knows best.