Last year was stable and successful for Kopiosto. We achieved our financial and operational objectives. Our licensing revenue was as budgeted, while our revenue from investments even exceeded our expectations. We were also able to stay within our budgeted expenses.
Cuts made the growth potential of the creative industry a topic of discussion
In our operating environment, last year was darkened by the Government’s strict savings and adjustment measures. They had a severe impact on creative industry organisations and institutions, as well as individual creators, artists and creative industry professionals. Kopiosto and the audiovisual industry professionals represented by us were directly impacted by the decision to halve compensation for private copying. This drastic cut can be seen from 2026 onwards as a reduction in our copyright remunerations for audiovisual authors and performing artists, and starting from 2025, the cut will result in a radical reduction in AVEK’s funding operations.
The cuts targeted at the creative industry gave rise to discussion about funding in the industry. This has also provided an opportunity to increase understanding of the creative industry’s growth potential, which has not been given enough attention at times. In Finland, the creative industries form an economy of roughly 17 billion euros, which equals 3.1 per cent of the gross national product. This portion is roughly one percentage point lower than the average of EU countries, which means that we need to find more growth opportunities.
The 2024 Cultural Policy Report clearly highlights the economic importance of culture and the creative industry. According to the report, Finland’s peer countries see the cultural and creative industries as a growth platform and have implemented political measures that meet their needs to promote them.
The development and maintenance of copyright legislation plays a significant role in facilitating growth in the creative industry. The report identifies copyright as a key factor in cultural policy, as it encourages the creation of works and facilitates the creation of value chains in the creative economy. As such, the report provides carefully considered guidelines for the future as decisions concerning copyright and cultural policy are made in Finland.
Will there be a copyright licence for training AI?
The use of AI-trained generative language models increased considerably in 2024. This forced us to think about how we, as a collective management organisation for creators and publishers, could respond to the copyright challenge posed by language models.
The copyright holders represented by us are aiming at establishing a copyright licence that can facilitate responsible use of works in the training of language models. This calls for transparency regarding what works are used in training processes. The transparency requirement set by the Artificial Intelligence Act of the EU brings much-needed regulation, although it will not be realised until this summer as the regulations concerning the requirement enter into force.
It is clear that AI and copyright issues related to it will continue to be a significant driver of change in our operating environment in the coming years.
Copyright law must be kept up to date
The most important facilitator of operating conditions in the creative industry is a modern and functional Copyright Act. The partial reform of the Act in 2023 stemmed from EU directives. Our survey conducted in cooperation with the Finnish National Agency for Education showed that the amendments made to the Act and licences for the use of works have made it easier to use contents responsibly in education. We want to achieve similar changes in other areas of society as well.
Unfortunately, reforming the Copyright Act from a national starting point has yet to begin. This undermines our ability to provide copyright licences for works in new kinds of usage situations. However, we are persistently working towards having the legally prescribed extended collective licence system updated within this government term to make it better meet today’s usage needs. Additionally, developing the system for compensation for private copying based on a report published in early 2025 may require changes to the Copyright Act.
The greatest disappointment of 2024 was a decision by the Supreme Court. According to the decision, copyright organisations, such as Kopiosto, have no legal standing in disputes brought to court. This lack of legal standing endangers well-functioning collective management in situations involving unauthorised use of works and hinders the right of creative industry professionals to actually effective legal protection measures. Together with other copyright organisations, we are working towards a law reform that would secure our legal standing.
Towards new licence products
In addition to promoting the required amendments to the Copyright Act, one of our key objectives in 2025 is to build new licence products. In accordance with our strategy, we are working towards fair remunerations for the creative industry professionals represented by us by providing the users of works with flexible opportunities to utilise the works in a manner that respects copyright.
One concrete step would be to have Kopiosto authorised to provide licences for the training of AI. Our association will decide on the matter in the spring, after which we would collaborate with our member organisations to collect the necessary authorisations from the creative industry professionals whom we represent.
I would like to thank our staff for their hard work for the creative industry, as well as all of our stakeholders for their cooperation and support in 2024. Let us make 2025 also a success together!
Valtteri Niiranen
CEO of Kopiosto
Photo: Riitta Supperi
