The Watchtower Library 2010 CD-ROM is only available in your local congregations.

The internet is a funny place, filled with dubious individuals with fickle morals.

A small number of people have recently asked where the Watchtower Library 2010 CD-ROM can be downloaded from off the internet. This would be the latest upgrade to the software that most of Jehovah’s people, with computers, are eagerly awaiting to arrive at our Kingdom Halls.

Of course, I have not received my CD, and I would never dream of putting a copy of it on the internet, and if I was aware of where it could be downloaded, I would never share that link with anyone. Why is this? It’s a matter of something we call loyalty, honesty, and integrity. Let’s review what the Introductory Letter says…

YOUR USE OF WATCHTOWER LIBRARY

1. What constitutes proper use? Watchtower Library has been designed for your personal use. Hence, you may copy, print, or excerpt from the data for your personal use. But you may not distribute the program or large sections of the data to others who do not own Watchtower Library on CD-ROM. Do not sell Watchtower Library or put the program or data on the Internet or any electronic network.

2. Who may have a copy of Watchtower Library? Watchtower Library is a research tool for Jehovah’s Witnesses, not for the public or for institutions such as schools or libraries.

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5. May I make a duplicate of my CD-ROM as a backup in case I lose or damage my original? Yes, but this does not refer to duplicating the CD-ROM for others, which would fall outside the realm of personal use.

Well that is rather clear and understandable, isn’t it? It is designed that way. Most other software comes with a License Agreement that governs your right to use the product, which you license from the publisher, and not actually own it. The Watchtower Library on CD-ROM is no different. But licenses are often written by lawyers in “legalese” language and can be difficult to understand without reading it through a second or third time. That is why the publishers of the Watchtower Library CD-ROM include the Introductory Letter, to put in layman’s terms what the actual license agreement is saying. Even so, the agreement is pretty clear as well…

3. RESTRICTIONS ON USE. You may not do any of the following: Sell the Product, the SOFTWARE, or the DATA; post all or any portion of the SOFTWARE or the DATA on the Internet or on any other electronic network; copy, print, or excerpt from the DATA for the purpose of…..

That first sentence above even applies to eBay, where sadly, it is occasionally being offered for sale.

So it should be clear how ethics come into play regarding this situation. The people who upload the Watchtower Library CD-ROM and make it available for others, strangers at that, to freely download, are showing a complete disregard for the program authors who are Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the publisher of such software, the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society. They are violating a host of Bible princples. To name a few:

“Jesus then said: “Pay back Caesar’s things to Caesar, but God’s things to God.” Mark 12:17

“Let every soul be in subjection to the superior authorities, for there is no authority except by God; the existing authorities stand placed in their relative positions by God. Therefore he who opposes the authority has taken a stand against the arrangement of God; those who have taken a stand against it will receive judgment to themselves.” Romans 13:1-2

The above two scriptures apply because the person who has obtained the software and uploads it to the internet is violating the license agreement, which in turn, is breaking the law. Would Jesus, the head of the Christian Congregation, think this practice was okay? The scripture in Romans not only relates to one breaking the law, but also draws to mind that the person uploading the Watchtower Library 2010 CD-ROM software is taking “a stand against the arrangement of God”, in two ways: directly, and by breaking the law.

“We trust we have an honest conscience, as we wish to conduct ourselves honestly in all things.” Hebrews 13:18

A person who obtains the software and then puts it on the internet is certainly a dishonest person. We could list scriptures all day long that also demonstrate why this practice is wrong.

So I recently saw a post on a supposed “Jehovah’s Witness” blog asking if somebody had gotten their Watchtower Library 2010 CD-ROM yet from their congregation, and if they could upload it to the internet in a .rar or .iso file and send the blogger a link.

Right away this post should make a faithful brother or sister among Jehovah’s people question whether or not the blog owner is in fact a brother at all. Why can he not wait to get his own copy through proper channels, namely, through his own congregation’s literature counter? Why on earth would he encourage someone to act so unfaithfully, and then act with such disrespect to our entire association of brothers around the world, and make the link to such software freely available to all?

And lastly, why would any faithful brother or sister download the software off the internet from some unapproved website or blog on the internet? Would you not be encouraging the other person to continue in his course of wrongdoing?

If the faithful and discreet slave saw fit to distribute this software over the internet, then they would have the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society make it available to us all at JW.org