Copyright gives creators of literary and artistic works the exclusive right to decide how their work is used. For a creative work to receive protection, it has to fill certain requirements, i.e., it has to be original and independent.
Copyright protects the expression of an original and independent work but not the actual idea, information, theory or principle itself. Copyright is created automatically when the work is created and does not require publication, registration or the use of the symbol ©.
The teacher may print up to 20 pages from a digital source. The number of photocopies of the printout is limited to the number of copies needed for teaching purposes.
A teacher may photocopy up to 20 pages but not more than 50% of the publication for the same students during a semester.
For teaching purposes, the teacher may:
NOTE! Workbooks, exercise books or answer books may not be photocopied or scanned for teaching purposes!
It is encouraged that teachers report material copied, scanned, printed or photocopied from the web using the Kopiosto reporting form (only in Finnish!). This will enable Kopiosto to allocate compensation to the copyright owners.
Teachers are entitled to copyright to teaching material that they have produced themselves and that exceeds the threshold of a work, i.e., is independent and original.
It is allowed to scan or copy a few copies of a published work (e.g. a book or magazine) for private use, such as for study or hobbies. Private use means family and close friends. The copy you make may not be used for any other purpose at a later date.
Not all online material is automatically freely available. For example, if you add an image to your website, no one else can copy and use it without your permission. Instead, you are allowed to link to freely available online material.
Tip! If you do not know the author of the image, you can use Google's reverse image search at https://images.google.com/ by clicking the camera icon. You can search for an image by its web address or by downloading the image from your computer. Google will search for pages where the image appears and will suggest similar images.
The term of copyright for a normal photograph is 50 years. If the photograph is independent, original and creative, the term of copyright is 70 years. The photographer usually has the copyright, except for newspaper or archive photos. The photos must not infringe anyone's privacy: regulations on privacy protection, freedom of speech and personal data.
Diagrams, charts, chemical structure formulas or drawings of the digestive system, for example, are things that are difficult to express in words. The drawing is a result of mechanical work, made from a model.
In order to get copyright, the drawing must be so independent and original that no one else would come up with the exact same end result. A diagram cannot be copyrighted if anyone else could end up with a similar image. However, the drawing might contain other copyrighted elements, such as logos or the publisher's graphics.
You have the right to quote if the image is used for scientific or critical purposes but only under certain conditions:
Educational material does not have the right to be quoted.
Images produced by AI are not subject to copyright, but it is difficult to say how much a person has influenced the image. There is a risk of copyright infringement because copyrighted works have been used to teach AI.
