If you want to use copyrighted materials in your work, you need permission to use them. A copying licence allows partial copying and sharing of copyrighted works, such as books, magazines and online materials, within an organisation. You can purchase a licence for your work community from our licence store.
A copying licence allows the use of copyrighted material in a variety of usage situations. Copyrights can protect not only printed materials but also materials published online. Screenshots or photos taken of websites are also regarded as copying.
The Copyright Act defines copyrighted material types and how these materials may be used. Copyrights protect articles, photographs, books and other works available both in print and online.
Materials may be copyrighted even if they are available on open websites. Identifying copyrighted materials can be difficult. With a copying licence, you ensure the legal use of the materials even when you are not sure whether the materials in question are copyrighted.
Copying refers to the making of copies of works, publications or parts thereof. In addition to photocopying, printing or scanning, materials are often copied using digital methods, such as
You can request permission to use copyrighted materials directly from the authors and publishers or take advantage of Kopiosto’s copying licence, which covers a wide range of materials and applications in both working life and education. Companies, joint municipal authorities, congregations and study centres can order a licence from our licence store. You can learn about the licences for other groups and how to obtain them on our website.
The most effortless and affordable way of acquiring a licence is to purchase a continuous subscription that will remain valid until further notice. This ensures that your licence will automatically continue one calendar year at a time. Once the licence period has changed, you can update the licence through our licence store if necessary. The licence will remain in effect unless changes are made to it.
You can read more about updating your licence on the customer groups’ own pages: for a company, joint municipal authority or a congregation. Only a temporary permit is available for a study centre.
A fixed-term licence will remain valid for one calendar year. When the licence ends, you can order a new licence through our licence service by giving the information requested.
To give a few examples, a copy can be made from a printed publication, a file on the internet, an image or text or parts thereof. There are a variety of methods and techniques of copying. Examples of copying for work-related use:
You most likely need one. Photocopying has decreased in most organisations, but copying is still done in many other ways. A copying licence is also required for printing and digital copying, such as copying text or images or taking screenshots of websites. Organisations also need a copying licence to digitise copyrighted materials with a scanner or by taking a photo of a publication’s pages with a phone, for example.
The copying licence covers the copying and distribution of both printed and digital copyrighted materials for internal use within an organisation. Such materials may include various text and image materials in printed publications or on the internet. For more detailed information about the coverage of our licence in various organisations, please check the licence terms.
According to the law, copying and using copyrighted works and publications requires the permission of the authors and publishers. If your organisation uses copyrighted materials, permission must be secured. You do not need a copying licence from Kopiosto if your organisation only uses texts and images for which permissions have been obtained directly from the authors and publishers, or if you only use materials whose usage rights are based on a Creative Commons (CC) licence or other similar open licence.
The copying licence is a solution for using copyrighted material.
In addition to content created by the author, works often utilise copyrighted texts and images created by others. According to the Copyright Act, distributing them or incorporating them into your own materials requires the permission of the authors and publisher.
Acquiring a licence directly from the authors and publisher is not easy or always even possible. Kopiosto comprehensively represents domestic and foreign authors and publishers, which is why our copying licence meets the copyright needs of most organisations well.
Internal use refers to an organisation’s administrative use, such as preparation for work tasks, internal information and training, archiving or research. Internal use within an organisation also includes copying works and sharing them with colleagues in remote and hybrid work.
The restrictions on copying licences are easily available in the licence terms for your organisation type (company, educational institution, joint municipal authority or congregation).
The licence restrictions pertain to the permitted source materials and the quantity that can be copied, as well as the methods and purposes for which the copies are to be used.
The licence always covers the entire staff. The price of the copying licence takes into account the fact that not all people in the organisation copy copyrighted material.
Materials copied under a copying licence are often used extensively in internal company communications, e.g. sharing via email, and in the internal data network. An internal data network can be, for example, a collaboration platform used by the staff (Office365, Teams, Google Workspace or similar). The price of the copying licence takes into account the fact that not all people in the organisation copy copyrighted material.
Without a copying licence, you can use the following in your work:
The price of a company’s copying licence is industry-specific and based on statistical studies in different industries on the number of instances of using copyrighted works. According to the studies, companies in certain industries copy and use protected works significantly less than average, while some industries have a need to utilise such material more than average.
We represent over 80,000 Finnish authors and publishers directly by virtue of our mandate. We also represent millions of foreign authors through agreements with our foreign sister organisations.
In addition to the authorisations we receive, the licences are based on an extended collective licence. An extended collective licence refers to a rights management system as defined in the Copyright Act. As a copyright organisation approved by the Ministry of Education and Culture, we can grant licences for the use of works even on behalf of copyright holders that Kopiosto does not represent directly based on authorisations. With the contractual licensing system, even authors and publishers who have not mandated Kopiosto can receive compensation from us.
Kopiosto is a non-profit organisation that promotes the interests of creative work. We pay the copyright remunerations collected through the copying licences to our member organisations, which distribute them to the authors and publishers in the form of various grants and awards, among other things. For example, the Finlandia Prize, Rudolf Koivu Prize and Science Journalist Award are funded with the copyright remunerations we collect. Read more about Kopiosto’s operations.