Profiting from Publicly Available Product Videos

3-12-2025 | IslamWeb

Question:

Is it permissible in Islam to use publicly available product review videos (without their original audio), add my own script, AI voice, and product images, and then earn money from them through affiliate marketing?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

If the terms of video-sharing platforms prohibit this in order to protect the intellectual property rights of the original video creators, then the matter is clear; it is prohibited, as intellectual property rights are protected in Islam. This has been affirmed in the decisions of the scholarly councils that issue Islamic rulings on contemporary issues.

However, if the terms and laws of these platforms allow benefiting from the original video material after modifying its content — such as changing the audio, altering the text, or similar adjustments — and consider the video, after modification, a new product belonging to the person who modified it, then you may, in that case, do what you asked about. Similarly, it is permissible to earn profit by publishing these videos after modification, provided that the products themselves are permissible.

Allah knows best.