Hi,

Recently I have started to notice many singers holding back from making albums due to the pirating of there music. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein ztl said that it’s not permitted to copy any item that is being sold by the creator of that item. Every time you copy it, you’re taking away sales from him. Anybody who downloads it, copies it, or does something else is really just turning someone else’s money into ashes. And that’s really the bottom line. It’s taking something from someone else. This is one of the areas where people say, “Everyone does it, and it really should be mutar (permitted)”.

Someone sweated nights and invested money and time in order to create a certain item that the public is interested in, and then he’s ready to sell it. And then it turns out that some Napster type of enterprise gets its hands on it, and people end up paying zero for it.

Just remember if you keep stealing eventually there will be nothing to steal.

Think about it, For example There are only two people in the world who know the recipe of Coca Cola. Somone then comes along and steals the recipe and starts selling the same product. Would you be ok with that? He's stealing. Same too works with the music.

This includes sending it around on telegram, WhatsApp etc.

Let's stop pirating once and for all! #NoPirating2020

Source: https://torah.org/learning/honesty-class64/