62 Jason Rosenberg

The Responsa Committee has already looked at the question of copyright in the Internet Age." They invoke the principle of dina demalkhuta dina in saying that it is against Jewish law to download material from the Internet without explicit permission. There is no reason to think that US copyright law is in any way a violation of Jewish law or principles, and therefore we are bound to it. But, the responsum goes on to look at the question not only through the lens of dina demalkhuta dina, but also as an inherently Jewish question: aside from any civil law: Does Judaism accept the idea of copyright, and intellectual property? In summary, we do. Intellectual property is a valid concept, Jewishly speaking, and possibly even a benefit to our people. However you look at it, the Responsa Committee taught us, we are responsible to obey the laws of copyright.

Al ahat kama v’kama, how much more so are we obligated when we are dealing not with entertainment materials, but rather with sacred texts and music? Participating in a service which violates US law through copyright infringement would seem to be a case of mitzvah habaah aveira, a mitzvah which is performed through a sin(such as performing netilat lulav with a stolen lulav).

Anecdotally, it seems that many congregations which are engaging in livestreaming are not aware, or perhaps are not admitting, that there is a serious issue here. It's possible that some kind of“religious fair use law” can be created, or that the law can be otherwise modified to allow webcasting of copyrighted materials. It's also possible that my interpretation of US law is faulty (although 1 spoke to a lawyer about this, my knowledge is obviously far from comprehensive, and I have heard from others who disagree with the legal opinion which I