Copyright in the use of artificial intelligence: How is copyright taken into account?

Artificial intelligence is an important tool for organisations, enabling them to streamline their work, refine information and produce new content. However, feeding copyrighted third-party content into an AI is copying, which usually requires a licence from the author or copyright holder.

What kinds of copyright risks do organisations face when using artificial intelligence?

The use of artificial intelligence involves copyright risks if an employee copies or uploads materials such as articles, reports, images or extracts from publications to an AI service without the necessary permission. This type of feeding of data into AI constitutes copying within the meaning of the Copyright Act. The use of content generated by AI may also involve a risk if the end result contains a copyrighted work or a variation of such a work. Unauthorised use may result in the organisation being held liable for compensation and suffering reputational damage.

How can artificial intelligence be used while respecting copyright?

Kopiosto has developed legally certain and comprehensive licences for organisations to ensure the responsible use of artificial intelligence from a copyright perspective. For example, the copying licence for companies was extended to allow companies to input copyrighted material into artificial intelligence systems under certain conditions.

A licence for the use of artificial intelligence is also available to the public sector, and at present, municipalities and wellbeing services counties have obtained the licence. State administration is not currently using the licence due to insufficient funding. Indeed, Kopiosto holds the view that the state budget allocation for licences based on the Copyright Act should be increased. In this way, artificial intelligence can be used responsibly while respecting copyright, and authors can also be compensated for new forms of use of their works.

We have designed our licences together with our member organisations representing the creative industry, and we distribute the proceeds from these licences to the creative industry.

Kopiosto is investigating the use of artificial intelligence in various sectors of society

2026 report on the use of artificial intelligence in teaching

The use of artificial intelligence in teaching has become increasingly widespread. A quarter of the respondents working in the education sector reported in our survey that they use artificial intelligence to generate text, images or sheet music at least a few times per week. At the same time, the report shows that AI systems are also fed with copyrighted material, which highlights the importance of copyright and clear instructions for use in teaching.

Read more about the findings of the report

2025 survey on artificial intelligence in the creative industry

Over half of the authors who responded to our survey reported using artificial intelligence as a tool in their own creative work. At the same time, people in the industry are concerned about issues such as the unauthorised use of works to train artificial intelligence and the impact of artificial intelligence on their future livelihoods.

Read more about the survey results

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Artificial intelligence and copyright

Generative AI applications train their models by using creative works, but there are no common practices in place and no agreement has been reached with the authors or other copyright holders regarding the use of these works. This poses a challenge to the realisation of copyright and the operating conditions of the creative economy in the age of artificial intelligence.

Kopiosto’s solutions: How can Finland become a model country for ethical AI?

Finland can become a pioneer in ethical AI if the development of AI brings together innovation, respect for copyright, the transparency of training materials and an appreciation of human creative work. Responsible artificial intelligence serves users, creative professionals and society as a whole.

Regulation of artificial intelligence and copyright: What can legislation influence?

Copyright holders are willing and prepared to grant licences for the use of their works in the development of artificial intelligence, but so far many of the major technology companies have been avoiding negotiations. For this reason, licensing requires legislative backing.