1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
|
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
"Waqf" General Public License
This is the informal English translation of Waqf General Public License.
Anything but the Arabic version of the license has no value except for
convenience of our English speaking users. When we talk about the License
we refer to the Arabic version, which is the only one we officially
offer, we will try our best to make other translation as accurate as
possible but because of the nature of human languages we use one single
reference language.
Preamble
Publishing any intellectual work (including but not limited to books and
Computer Software) is not done by selling even if it appeared to be so,
but it's about getting an implied license that has no enforcement without
the concept of intellectual property granted by man-made laws which was
acquired as they claim to promote the publication of science and the
useful arts. The concept of the so called “intellectual property” is
centered around giving ownership to the first one who register the work
(called owner or copyright holder and we will refer to him/her/it as
holder) then the holder practice his rights on the work in it's intangible
form on any media it's carried, and thus using the intellectual work
without explicit prior permission is according to them ethically
equivalent to hijacking ships or “piracy” as they call it. This permission
is called License and it's aimed to give the holder (usually the
publisher) an advantage in the market against other publishers through
monopoly on providing that work by imposing restrictions on the users not
the publishers. Such works are called “Proprietary”.
We see that such agreements (proprietary licenses) are evil, but we also
acknowledge that making an agreement with a prior intention to violate it
is another immoral evil ^1). We don't solve problems with problems, we
offer an alternative.
We have a different vision, we offer our work (like computer software) to
please Allah, and this is the pillar of this license which distinguish it
from proprietary licenses. Any other intention (like spreading knowledge
or getting profits) should be accomplished in ways that does not go
against our primary moral aim.
According to our believes (which we don't enforce on any one, and you may
or may not share it with us) that Islam certainly forbids monopoly and
concealing knowledge in general, and this comes from:
* The sound Hadith (saying of prophet Muhammad PBUH): “Who conceal any
type of knowledge will be bridle with a bridle of fire on the Day of
Resurrection.” ^2)
* Islamic Jurisprudence has specified what can be owned, and the rules
does not apply to ideas as it's not a bounded tangible object and
almost all the terms of proprietary agreements fall in ruling of
forbidden Gharar^3) (a kind of fraud that use uncertainty to
fool the customers) as we see in Imam Muslim Sahih description of that
term {and below that term we classify so many actions like selling
negligible objects or unknowns or what can't be delivered or things
that are not full owned by the seller} and such view is also shared by
the four major scholars.
* The laws of Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence) have been perfected in the
good centuries and no new rulings are allowed to be brought except for
newly discovered things and this does not apply ideas as they did
exist in the past centuries and Muslims massively spread them without
owning them. FYI: Almost all the Islamic literature is freely
available on the internet.
* Concealing useful knowledge from those who need it impose damage to
people for temporal gains to few individuals. This can not be
justified by Shari'a (Islamic Law), it's only justified by
individualist capitalism ^4)
* Even bringing interests to software publishers is not a valid excuse
because there are some companies produce and publish software without
owning them (proprietary software) and yet they gain profits.
* the so call “Intellectual Proprietary” is all about giving owners the
right to forbid what Allah had made lawful to gain money, not by
providing service nor goods.
* The uncertainty and untangable nature of the claimed owned product is
the source of “protection money collecting” where some company
threaten some smaller company by copyright infringement lawsuit on
some purposely ambiguous product which the later can't afford so they
go safe and pay.
If the good intentions made excuses to introduce “intellectual
proprietary” by the Machiavellists who wrote the American constitution
as an acquired right (at least they admit it's not a natural right), they
serve their own way of life which is not international. We don't take
that. We have our own high moral standards. We introduce Waqf General
Public License to place it among the anti-copyright licenses. This license
is designed to grant rights to users not to restrict them, it's uses the
concept of copyleft/copy-wrong as opposed to the concept of copyright.
Computer software, Medicine formula or even poems are considered to be
intellectual works and thus can be covered by “Waqf”. An intellectual work
is any useful idea that can be delivered or utilized by people. “Waqf” is
not meant for ideas in general, but for intellectual work which is
beneficial to people if published. As we support protecting privacy for
example one shouldn't publish names of his customers, bid prices,
government military or political secrets because those are not
intellectual works.
We should clarify two things:
* First: The favor and ethical rights of the holder are preserved and
acknowledged
* Second: original author and any other party (if they have the
intention and the ability) have the right to get fees on enhancing the
work or developing it or to provide paid services or paid courses
…etc. but not the work in its intangible form. There is not
contradiction between getting fees on services because what is covered
by “Waqf” is the source form of the work not the media nor the service
(the same way one can take fees on shipping fruits for a charitable
Waqf fruit field or make juice)
Definitions
The following terms would have the corresponding meanings in this license
* The intellectual work (or The work for short): is any useful
intangible intellectual product that can be passed on to others or
replicated withno cost imposed on the original author or the one who
pass it on before.
* The holder: is the creative author or the party which carried the
process of developing the work and make it available (and the one who
holds the copyrights on the product before the governmental offices).
* the licensee or the user: any one or party who uses the work (runs,
copies, modifies or otherwise takes benefits provided by the work).
* The license: this agreement (the Arabic version of “Waqf”) between the
two parties (the holder and the user) covering the usage of the second
party on the work provided by the first party. The usage of the
product is with accordance to the terms of this license. And because
of the intangible nature of the work, this agreement applies by using
the product (in any way) without signing the agreement. One do not
accept the terms looses the rights given by this license and his/her
usage of the work is considered illegal and will be sued.
The Terms
Waqf General Public license (or “Waqf” for short) covers intellectual
works (including but not limited to Software and paper publications,
scientific theses, art works) and have many common features with FLOSS
licenses. Waf is distinguished with its moral intentions behind the work
and usage limits.
As the name suggests, with “Waqf” ^5) the holder announce his/her work
was produced and made available to the public for the sake of Allah aimed
to please Allah by providing people with useful works. It's a form of
“Sadaqa Jariah” ^6).
“Waqf” gives users (regardless of their nationality, color, race,
religion) the right to benefit from the work with running, copying,
redistribution, or even develop and only with according to the following
* First - Usage :
The user may use the work for any good purpose and he may not use it to
harm others or violate the permissive principles of Islam ^7). Notice
that any work that is most likely harmful can't be put under Waqf in the
first place.
* Second - Redistribution :
The user have the right to redistribute the unmodified work in any
quantity to any third party under the terms of this license, acknowledging
the favor and ethical rights of the holder to the third party.
* Third - Modifications :
The user has the right to get the source form of the work and make
modifications enhancing or adopting to the user's needs to the limits
given by this license.
* Fourth - Redistribute modifications:
The user can redistribute modifications only under this license provided
that he points to previous original work (the unmodified work) and its
author and the nature of modification clearly to the third party to whom
the modified work is presented in a way that no one may reasonably get
confused between it and the original unmodified work of the previous
author.
* Fourth - Disclaimer of responsibility :
The holder does not take any legal nor moral direct or indirect
responsibility nor liability on the good or bad usage or damages caused by
the work to the farthest level allowed by the law. THIS SOFTWARE IS
PROVIDED AS IS AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED BY THE HOLDER.
The entire responsibility is on the user and the only warranty given to
him is the source of the work.
Conclusion
Applying Waqf public license help to spread the awareness of dangers
caused by intellectual property. And provide people with a legal
alternative even though we don't believe on the validity of such man made
laws.
^1) http://www.islam-qa.com/ar/ref/454
^2) This is an authentic sound/Sahih as it's narrated by Imam
Ahmad, Abu Dawood, AlTirmithi and Ibn Majah. Refer to “Hoisting the
Lighthouse : A synopsis of the Various narrations of the Hadith: Whoever
conceals knowledge, Allah will bridle him with a bridle of fire” or in
Arabic “رفع المنار بطرق حديث من كتم علماً ألجمه الله بلجام من نار”.
^3) Some information about Ghrar is available at
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gharar.asp
^4) Although Islamic economy is a kind of liberal capitalism economy
but it's regulated with so many moral rulings that guarantee social
justice
^5) The name Waqf means to prevent the source or assets from being
consumed while giving away for charity the proceeds.
^6) Sadaqa Jariah means sustainable charity which is a kind of charity
that continue to be beneficial to people even after the death of the one
who give it like giving the fruits of a field but not the field, more over
prophet Muhammad PBUH specifically named useful knowledge as a form of
that kind of charity.
^7) Some scholars use the term Maqasid Alsharia and summarize them by
saying that it aims to protect people rights in religion, lives, sanity,
breed, and properties.
|
