What should every student know about Finnish copyright law?

1. What should every student know about Finnish
copyright legislation?
Vesa Linja-aho 2012-12-10
12/11/12 Helsinki Metropolia 1

2. About me
 Helsinki University of Technology 2003-2009
 Lecturer (Circuit Theory and Electronics) and Researcher
(Information Theory)
 Talentum Media 2009-2010
 Journalist (Computerworld Finland)
 Metropolia UAS 2009-
 Senior Lecturer in Automotive Electronics
 Interested in improving the quality of teaching and promoting
possibilities of new technology and open educational
resources.

3. Intellectual property rights (IPR)
 Patent
 Design protection
 Trademark
 Copyright

4. Why are these things difficult and important?
 It is rather easy to commit a crime accidentally or nearly accidentally.
 Everyone knows that it is illegal to kill a person, burn someone’s house or steal
a lollipop from grocery store. But do you know:
 Is it legal to copy a textbook?
 Is it legal to add a
 photo
 a diagram
 by someone else to your own bachelor’s thesis?
 The criminal punishment is usually negligible compared to the compensations.
 In the internet age, it is amazingly easy to make copies of stuff.

5. The legislation is rather new
 When I was kid,
 Copying of computer programs at home was
completely legal.
 Downloading music was completely legal.
 Only the guy who put it in the internet was criminal.

6. Brief history
 In contrary to popular belief, the copyright law has
nothing to do with the invention of the Gutenberg
printing press.
 Even in ancient Rome, copier slaves produced
copies very efficiently.
 First modern copyright law was set about 270
years after Gutenberg (Statute of Anne 1710)
 The protection time was 14+14 years!

7. There is virtually no propaganda for what you can do legally.
 In the newspapers, you can read about expensive
compensations for internet piracy.
 In school, the children will get leaflets and
instructional comics by copyright industry.
 Why not from weapons or fur industry? 

8. Copyright legislation = balancing
 Author’s right to get money from his/her work.
 The industry’s right to make money.
 The other’s right to utilize the work.
 Bureaucracy (how hard it is to use someone’s work).

9. Copyright: the creator’s rights
 The creator of the original work has exclusive right to
 Produce new copies from the original work
 Distribute the original work to the public
 In addition to the commercial rights, the creator has moral
rights:
 Attribution
 Respect right
 Access
 Classic protection article

10. Copyright: the user’s rights
 Showing a published work. For example: put a copy
on your wall (not on Facebook wall).
 Showing is different from presenting it (with a data
projector, for example).
 Citing a published work
 Parody
 Referencing
 Private use

11. Related Rights (Finnish: Lähioikeudet)
 Photograph
 Database
 Audio or video recording

12. How to use immaterial stuff by others?
 Private use
 Special rights in teaching
 Citation
 Use work below threshold of originality
 Use work with expired copyright.
 Ask for a permission.
 In Finland, there is no fair use –concept, like in USA.
 Parody is also not mentioned in Finnish law, but it is included in EU
copyright directive.

13. Private use
 You can make private copies of published work.
 But you can not redistibute them.
 For example: you can take a book from library, scan
it and save it to your computer. Or photocopy it.
 You can even use third party help to copy it.
 But you are not allowed to upload it to public
internet forum.

14. Special rights in teaching
 Teaching = teaching in school or university. Not in private
education company.
 Presetation of published work when teaching.
 For example: teacher can show book with document
camera and data projector.
 Exception: theatre play and motion picture.
 Photocopying 20 pages or 50 % of a book or magazine and
giving the copies to students.
 This is from a contract between Ministry of Education and
Culture and Kopiosto (copyright agency), not from law.

15. Unclear
 How do you define a ”motion picture”?
 Commercial movies
 Surveillance camera video?
 10 sec, 30 sec, 10 minute video made with mobile phone
video camera?
 Virtually no legal praxis (Copyright Council 1998:6).
 In practice, risk of getting sued for showing Youtube video on
your lesson is minimal (in my opinion).
 The law is from the age before Youtube (and so are
politicians…).

16. Citation
 You can cite a published work in the extent required
for the purpose. (Copyright Act 22 §)
 Using a ”citation” to decorate your work or just for fun
is not citation!

17. Image Citation
 Copyright Act 25 §
 You can make an image from published work of art
and use it in text-associated context in critical or
scientific purpose.
 For example, you can take photo of a statue in your
essay concerning that statue.
 Using picture to decorate your essay or book is not
citing.

18. Use work below the threshold of originality
 If the piece of work is not original enough, it is not a
subject of copyright.
 The number of hours used to make the work doesn’t
make it copyrightable. The originality is what matters.
 Diagrams, graphs, circuit diagrams, technical
illustrations are generally not subjects of copyright
 http://www.opettajantekijanoikeus.fi/2011/11/selittavat-piirros
/

19. Is this a subject of copyright?
http://
www.scribd.com/doc/79088037/Elektroniikan-perusteet-har

20. Is this a subject of copyright?
One spot of green, watered by hidden streams,
Makes summer in the desert where it gleams;
And mortals, gazing on thy heavenly face,
Forget the woes of earth, and share thy dreams!
- Florence Van Leer (Earle) Nicholson Coates
(1850–1927)

21. Threshold of Originality
 If someone else could accomplish the similar output,
the work is not copyrightable.
 The threshold of originality is lower in art than
science.

22. Use work with expired copyright
 Copyrightable original work: 70 years from the death of the
author (died 1941 or earlier).
 Voice or video recording: 50 years from completing or
publishing the recording (1961 or earlier).
 Ordinary photo: 50 years from making the photograph
(1966, because of the transition time in the law)
 Database or catalog: 15 years publishing (1998)
 TV or radio transmission: 50 years from last transmission
(1961).

23. Ask for a permission
 http://
www.posti.fi/postimuseo/images/lehdisto/hahmoterapiaa/fingerporihahm
 Me on 2012-01-18 9am: ”Can I use this picture as my profile
picture in my Facebook group?”
 Pertti Jarla 2012-01-19 noon: ”Of course you can, thanks for
asking!”
 https://
www.facebook.com/pages/Vesa-opettaa-sinulle-s%C3%A4hk%C3%B6
 What is the problem with this approach?
 Case: Phasor calculus book.

24. Procedures I have seen
 Photocopy the book and sell it to students.
 Illegal and expensive if caught!
 Legal workarounds:
 Find more inexpensive book.
 Use open material.
 Use same book on more courses.
 Try to get the school library to buy multiple copies.
 Put the material on the course web page (was very
expensive when caught).

25. Procedures I have seen
 Photocopy the book once, put the copy next to the
photocopier and let students copy it with their card.
 Illegal. The legal way: tear the covers off the book
and put the pages next to photocopier.
 The professor ”forgets” a memory stick with ebook in
the front desk of the class.
 It is legal to forget but illegal to ”forget”.

26. Unclear situations
 The copyright holder is not traceable
 The work is distributed freely over internet and the
author gives quiet acceptance for it.
 International situations: the Swedish author, Chinese
student in Finland, servers in USA.
 General rule: use the copyright legislation of the
origin country of the piece of work (Berne
Convention).

27. What to do if I wanted to use this photo? Who to
contact?

28. Part Two: Open Licenses
 Openness is today’s hot topic.
 Anyone heard of:
 Linux?
 Firefox?
 Wikipedia?

29. Free or Open?
 Free = You do not have pay for it.
 Free speech vs. free beer.
 Open = You can examine it, modify it and redistribute
it – even commercially.

30. Internet is changing the education, and it’s happening fast!
 Does the Internet do same to the education what it did to newspapers?
 https://6002x.mitx.mit.edu/
 http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-00sc-in
/
 http://mooc.cs.helsinki.fi/
 http://www.ocwconsortium.org/
 www.codecademy.com/
 In Finland the change is slower:
 Small language area
 Education is funded from tax money (no direct market feedback).

31. How to license your work with open license
 Open licenses for computer programs: Apache
license, GPL, LGPL, MIT License, …
 Can be used for documents and artwork too.
 More popular for documents and art: The Creative
Commoncs –licenses:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

32. Why to use open license?
 It’s fun to share!
 It’s free advertisement for you
 I’ve got
 two job offers
 Several speech requests
in a year, just for this: http://www.slideshare.net/linjaaho
 The more people use open license, the more we have free and open
content!
 The others can improve your work and you can use the improved work.
 Why not?

34. License lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build
upon your work, even commercially, as long as they
credit you for the original creation . This is the
most accommodating of licenses offered.
Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of
licensed materials.

35.  This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your
work even for commercial purposes, as long as they
credit you and license their new creations under
the identical terms . This license is often compared to
“copyleft” free and open source software licenses. All new
works based on yours will carry the same license, so any
derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the
license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for
materials that would benefit from incorporating content
from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects.

36. This license allows for redistribution, commercial and
non-commercial, as long as it is passed along
unchanged and in whole , with credit to you.

37.  This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon
your work non-commercially, and although their
new works must also acknowledge you and be non-
commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative
works on the same terms.
 What problems do you see with this license?

38. Combinations of the previous mentioned.

39. Where to find open content?
 http://
linja-aho.blogspot.com/2011/04/avoin-oppimateriaali-mista-s
 It’s in Finnish, but just click the links .

40. I would love to have your feedback or questions:
etunimi.sukunimi@metropolia.fi