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I have heard from numerous people that there are opinions within Orthodox halacha that permit using pirated computer software. I have never seen this sourced or printed anywhere but only things like "I spoke to a rabbi once" or "my friend researched this extensively and it's ok.".
Can anyone share sources or names of poskim who are on record allowing use of pirated computer software?
In the Talmud, it is stated that if you lose something that you know cannot be returned to you (e.g., if a river overflows or if it had no identifiers), even though you know it's yours, you lose all hope of getting it back and therefore, it's as good as gone.
If I find something like that, I could safely assume that the owner lost hope of getting it back and I can use it.
Some Rabbis (like Rav Dov Lior), assume that anything that was uploaded to the Internet is the same as a lost object.
Therefor, you can download anything from the internet (even though uploading is prohibited).
I cannot provide the name of a posek allowing the use of pirated software. Most Internet references to rabbanim allowing this are anonymous and along the lines of "a friend has told me", "I heard from", etc.
@thepoosh cites R Dov Lior as allowing it but it is not at all clear that the laws of asheivat aveida (lost objects) apply to this case as the publisher didn't lose the software; instead it was stolen from him. The analogy with iyush (abandon) may not apply either as the publisher would very likely ask the site to take down stolen software if he was aware of them. R Dov Lior has a history of controversial statements (cf. his Wikipedia entry) and without taking away from his greatness in Torah he is not a mainstream posek.
Instead, and for the avoidance of doubt, there are many poskim who explicitly forbid downloading copyrighted software, music or video.
For instance R Moshe Feinstein (Igrot Moshe, OC vol 4 40:19), prohibits copying physical items of music, movies, art, etc. to prevent others from losing money (see comments below for possible limitations to the analogy with online media).
The Rabbinical Council of America came out against this very clearly stating
Whereas the Internet has also enabled people to illegally download intellectual property covered by copyright, particularly music, thereby depriving record companies and artists of royalties due them by law; and whereas such downloading and deprivation of royalties constitutes theft which is clearly prohibited both by secular law and Halacha for both Jews and non-Jews
Therefore, the RCA hereby calls upon our entire community, including Jews of all ages, to desist from illegally downloading music, Jewish as well as secular, and other forms of entertainment, in order to comply with the requirements of Halacha and the law of the United States.
See more sources coming out against pirating software
It's a question of birur ha'metziyos. Your published knowledge does not belong to you but your public utilisation of that knowledge does.
Since utilisation of computer software is ubiquitiously done only on computers, you should measure the chiluk between knowledge and utilisation relative to computer use.
Therefore software piracy is assur, or 'if it sounds krum it probably is'.
