IP Laws and Religion in Indonesia
From The Jakarta Post:
"One important matter contained within fatwas (edicts) recently issued Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) is the judgment that Intellectual Property (IP) violations are haram. This conclusion means that utilizing IP without a right is a violation of God's prescribed law and thus a sinful thing to do for a Muslim. MUI's argument is that Islamic law protects the rights and property of individuals and that Intellectual Property is also a form of property that is protected under Islamic law." ....
"Under old Islamic customs there was a system of knowledge acknowledgement known as ijaza (certificate). If a person is to teach, quote or reproduce a certain knowledge, then he or she must obtain an ijaza from the author. This system of a chain of authority is designed to ensure authenticity in the passing of knowledge from one person to another, and also as a form of respect for authors.
"Certainly, this kind of system was not created for financial benefit but rather for the sanctity of science. It only protects the moral right of an author to a certain degree. The knowledge itself belongs to God, not to any individual. The ijaza system certainly is not a form of copyright. ....
"Whether or not an idea expression can be proprietarized under Islamic law is still not certain. What the MUI has done through its fatwa is to make an analogy with the protection of tangible property available in Islam and further extending and applying it to intangible property. ....
"The MUI's fatwas are not binding, both in terms of religious or positive law. However, they have great psychological influence as the majority of Indonesian Sunni Muslims will tend to adhere to it."
Note that this is in the "opinion and editorial" section of the paper.