The Adinnadana (stealing) in the Panca-sila (Five Precepts) and the Infringement of Academic Works

Abstract

This article aims at critically studying the concept of Adinnadana (stealing) in the Panca-sila (Five Precepts) and determining whether Academic Works Infringement violates the Adinnadana Precept or not. It employs documentary research method, mainly analyzing the teachings of the Tipitaka. The study finds that ‘Academic Works’ refer to the knowledge and the wisdom in any of the academic fields by which the author uses his physical and mental abilities to create a commercially valuable product. The author has two exclusive legal rights in these works: 1) moral rights or the rights as the creator of the works, and 2) economic rights or rights as the user of these works for commercial purposes. These rights are not to be violated. In Buddhism, Academic Works refer to the doctrines (Dhammas) and the disciplines (Vinayas) which are the products of the Buddha’s Enlightenment. In the Buddha’s era, a person who preached the Buddha’s Dhammas and the Vinayas as his own is called a “Mahacora” (the great robber) by the Buddha. This kind of protection is similar to the current protection of Academic Works in terms of “moral rights”. Adinnadana in the five Precepts is the principle used in approaching the issue of Academic Works Infringement in this study. Anyone who copies between 25 to 100 percent of any Academic work with proper reference to the owner of these works can be seen as violating the economic rights and infringing the Adinnadana Precept. However, without proper reference, these actions violate both moral and economic rights, and infringes the Precept of Adinnadana, including the Precept of Musavada (false speech).