Yashrus
I once read a story about Rav Avraham Yitzchak Ha'Kohen Kook, ztk'l's days as a talmid of the the Netziv in the Volozhin Yeshiva. A couple of other bachurim in the Yeshiva came to the Rosh Yeshiva to ask permission to wear their tefillin in the bais medrash all day. The Netziv turned them down. One of the bochurim brazenly asked the Rosh Yeshiva, "Rebbe, you allow R. Avraham Yitzchak to wear his tefillin all day. Are we not talmidei chachamim like him?". The Netziv replied, "Yes, certainly you are talmidei chachamim. But Reb Avraham Yitzchak is a yashar".
It is hard to define what yashrus means. Literally, it means "straightness" and I guess that is close enough for me. I am reminded of this story by one of the things I've recently been posting about, to wit, the case in the Supreme Court regarding file-sharing systems.
To briefly review: A bunch of music and movie producers are suing a number of internet file-sharing systems that facilitate the unlawful downloading of music and movies. The plaintiffs want to hold the file-sharing systems liable for copyright infringement and the systems are claiming that they are not themeselves doing anything illegal.
It is not clear what the Court will decide but, if I had to guess, I would bet that the Court will decide for the defendants.
What is clear and is the settled law of the land is that the downlowding and copying of music and movies by individuals without paying is an unlawful breach of the copyright laws.
Interestingly, the halachah, according to people who know more than me, is murky when it comes to both the issue of intellectual property and to the issue of the application of the principle, "dina d'malchusa dina" (the law of the land is the law). (Gil, help me out!)
Despite the law, the practice of unlawfully downloading music and movies from the internet is widespread, with millions of downloads every day. This practice is also very widespread in the frum community. In the MO community the practice is comprised of the usual downloading of secular music and in more chareidi circles it is the uploading and sharing of Jewish music CDs.
This bother me no end. The practice is unlawful in this country. As unlawful as going into a store and stealing a physical CD. It is taking someone's intellectual property without paying for it. Period. Even if it is technically within halachah, it is certainly not lifnim m'shuras ha'din. It is not yashar.
I just don't understand all the justifications. What are we teaching our kids?
I once read a story about Rav Avraham Yitzchak Ha'Kohen Kook, ztk'l's days as a talmid of the the Netziv in the Volozhin Yeshiva. A couple of other bachurim in the Yeshiva came to the Rosh Yeshiva to ask permission to wear their tefillin in the bais medrash all day. The Netziv turned them down. One of the bochurim brazenly asked the Rosh Yeshiva, "Rebbe, you allow R. Avraham Yitzchak to wear his tefillin all day. Are we not talmidei chachamim like him?". The Netziv replied, "Yes, certainly you are talmidei chachamim. But Reb Avraham Yitzchak is a yashar".
It is hard to define what yashrus means. Literally, it means "straightness" and I guess that is close enough for me. I am reminded of this story by one of the things I've recently been posting about, to wit, the case in the Supreme Court regarding file-sharing systems.
To briefly review: A bunch of music and movie producers are suing a number of internet file-sharing systems that facilitate the unlawful downloading of music and movies. The plaintiffs want to hold the file-sharing systems liable for copyright infringement and the systems are claiming that they are not themeselves doing anything illegal.
It is not clear what the Court will decide but, if I had to guess, I would bet that the Court will decide for the defendants.
What is clear and is the settled law of the land is that the downlowding and copying of music and movies by individuals without paying is an unlawful breach of the copyright laws.
Interestingly, the halachah, according to people who know more than me, is murky when it comes to both the issue of intellectual property and to the issue of the application of the principle, "dina d'malchusa dina" (the law of the land is the law). (Gil, help me out!)
Despite the law, the practice of unlawfully downloading music and movies from the internet is widespread, with millions of downloads every day. This practice is also very widespread in the frum community. In the MO community the practice is comprised of the usual downloading of secular music and in more chareidi circles it is the uploading and sharing of Jewish music CDs.
This bother me no end. The practice is unlawful in this country. As unlawful as going into a store and stealing a physical CD. It is taking someone's intellectual property without paying for it. Period. Even if it is technically within halachah, it is certainly not lifnim m'shuras ha'din. It is not yashar.
I just don't understand all the justifications. What are we teaching our kids?
posted by MoChassid @ 9:38 AM
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