Non-member copyright holders are treated with the same principles as Kopiosto’s members in the distribution of remunerations.
According to the Finnish Copyright Act, a claim for personal remuneration must be verifiably presented within three years of the end of the calendar year in which the copying of the work occurred.
The copying of the works for which the claim is made must be permitted with Kopiosto’s copying licence. In addition to that, the work’s terms of use cannot prohibit or restrict the use in question and the copyright holder has not notified Kopiosto of a prohibition on using their works. Also, the copyright holder has not agreed upon the use of the work directly with the users for the manners of use covered by Kopiosto’s copying licence.
Remunerations collected by Kopiosto is paid to non-member copyright holders when
- Kopiosto’s surveys show evidence of the copying of the copyright holder’s works,
- the copyright holder provides specified evidence themselves or
- there are very reasonable grounds to assess the remuneration without evidence.
Kopiosto’s copying licences and distribution of remunerations are based on statistical surveys. These copying surveys are conducted comprehensively, and the sectors of society they cover are educational institutions, public administration and companies. The surveys are conducted every three to five years depending on the sector, and they cover four different methods of copying: photocopying, printing out, copying of online materials and scanning.
The copying surveys defines the evidence of the copying of works. The respondents of the surveys are the users of the copying licence who report, how and what kind of material they have copied, among other things. If the source of the copied material is a book, for example, the respondent is asked to also provide more detailed information about the book, such as the ISBN and/or title of the book.
We represent authors, performing artists and publishers by their authorisation. With these authorisations, we grant licences to use works on behalf of the copyright holders. In addition to Finnish copyright holders, we represent foreign copyright holders based on agreements made with our foreign sister organisations.
Based on Section 26 of the Finnish Copyright Act, Kopiosto has been approved to grant, on behalf of authors, extended collective licences, as referred to in Section 26 of the Finnish Copyright Act for the photocopying of works (Copyright Act, Section 13) and reproducing works in digital format for use in education and scientific research (Copyright Act, Section 14). Under Subsection 1 of Section 26 of the Finnish Copyright Act, the provisions of the Copyright Act regarding extended collective licences shall apply to an agreement made on the use of works of authors in a given field between the user or a party representing the users and an organisation approved by the Ministry of Education and Culture. According to the Act, an approved organisation is with regard to this agreement approved to represent authors of other works in the same field. A licensee who has obtained an extended collective licence by virtue of the aforementioned agreement, may, under terms determined in the agreement, use all works by authors in the same field.
The Ministry of Education and Culture has approved Kopiosto as an extended collective licence organisation in the fields of Section 13 (photocopying) and Section 14 (digital use in education and scientific research) of the Finnish Copyright Act. An author not directly represented by the organisation can prohibit reproduction of their work for use in education and scientific research (Section 14, Subsection 4). The prohibition must be presented in writing to Kopiosto, who will communicate the prohibition to its licensees.
Kopiosto grants licences for the partial copying and digital use of publications protected by copyright, as well as for the various ways of using audiovisual works.