Question:
I paid for an online course with several sections. The course tracks the “completion” of each section, once the participant watches it. There is no professional component, it is just for personal education.
If the course is “completed” within 90 days (ie the user has “watched” the entire course), the participant has lifelong access to the material (probably to encourage it to actually be watched!)
I am pressed for time, I would like to hit the “play” button on each of the sections without listening to them now. That way, the sections will play, be marked as “completed”, and I will have lifelong access and can watch them later.
Is there any deficiency in yashrus to do this?
On the one hand, I am doing something that looks like I watched something that I didn’t.
On the other hand, I don’t think that it affects anyone else or the company (maybe except for their records of use if they keep track?). And, the computer system doesn’t have anything in place to stop someone from just “playing” the sections.
What is the proper thing to do?
Answer:
It isn’t a problem. There are many ways that the company can enforce that you only get access if you actual viewed 100% of the videos. The fact that they didn’t, is most probably because they don’t care if you actually watched the whole thing or not. Therefore since thye don’t care, you have no problem doing this.
Best wishes
