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Sharing Online Courses

There are many “online courses” which are a bunch of lectures, sold for around a hundred dollars or so.

I’ve been “splitting” these with a colleague- one of us signs up and then we duplicate it and we share in the cost.

Is this permitted?

Answer:

The depends on the tems and conditions posted on the site.

If the conditions stipulate that sharing is not permitted, then you must not do so. Even if the institution is non-Jewish, this remains prohibitied.

However, if no such stipulation is made, they you do not have to be concerned that perhaps they do not permit the practice, and you can continue to ‘share’ the courses.

Sources:

There are three major factors that give this case added stringency to general copyright questions:

1) One is that clicking on the “I agree” button is an explicit statement of compliance with the terms, and because a financial transaction is involved, according to some rishonim this can be a Torah prohibition of falsehood.

2) Another added stringency is the matter of dina demalchusa. Whereas the question of copying for private use is legally complex, clicking “I agree” is a legal contract, and its infringement is a clear transgression of dina demalchusa.
3) The third, and perhaps most important factor, is that internet sales, especially in this case, are from the producer himself, who simply does not agree to sell without the conditions being fulfilled. In buying from a store, the stipulation (tenai) of not copying is weak, because the store is selling, and somebody else is making a stipulation. In this case, the person doing the selling is the person making the stipulation, and the seller does not agree to sell without the conditions being met. This raises a concern of actual gezel.

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