Question
I deal in crypto spot trading only, without financial leverage or margins, and as far as I know it is permissible. Sometimes we follow Telegram channels which publish leaked recommendations from other channels belonging to analysts who have private, paid-for channels, for which they charge a subscription fee. I want to ask about the ruling on engaging in a transaction based on leaked information that is made available to the public for free, even though I know that this advice is leaked from another, paid-for channel. If the answer is that it is not permissible, what should I do if I got this advice through leaks?
In brief: what is the ruling on benefitting from advice that people usually pay for, that was leaked to the public for free?
Praise be to Allah.
Firstly:
It is permissible to deal in crypto currency, if the exchange takes place immediately and the transaction is free of any infractions of Islamic teachings, such as using financial leverages and dealing in differences, futures and so on.
Please see the answers to questions no. 106094 , 125758 and 310956 .
Secondly:
It is not permissible to transgress against the rights of others, such as leaking recommendations from a channel of which the owners do not allow publishing them and making them available to the public, even if the one who leaks them is a subscriber to the channel, but the owners do not allow people to publicise them. That is because of the established principle which says that “Muslims are bound by their conditions.” Moreover, intellectual property rights are rights which must be protected and it is forbidden to transgress against them.
It says in a statement of the Islamic Fiqh Council regarding non-tangible rights:
Intellectual property rights and patents are protected according to Islamic teachings. Their owners have the right to dispose of them, and it is not permissible to transgress against them."(Majallat al-Majma‘ (vol. 5, issue 3, p. 2267).
Thirdly:
If a book or analysis is published and the authors do not want it to be made available to the public for free, but it is made available to people, is it haram to read it and make use of it?
What appears to be the case is that it is not haram, unless that helps the transgressor to continue in his transgression, such as if he publishes it in a video clip, and clicking on it will encourage him to carry on doing that.
But if it will not help him in his transgression, such as if it is taken from somewhere other than his website, then there is nothing wrong with making use of the book or analysis that has been published.
For more information, please see the answers to questions no. 226230 , 236653 and 130235 .
And Allah knows best.
