The Finnish Copyright Act Reform ' Is Your Organisation Ready?
| Jurisdiction | European Union |
| Law Firm | Borenius Attorneys Ltd |
| Subject Matter | Intellectual Property, Copyright |
| Author | Mr Samuli Simojoki and Joona Riski |
| Published date | 04 July 2023 |
The upcoming modernisation of the Finnish Copyright Act is the most significant change for copyright legislation in Finland in the last two decades. The reformed Act enters into force on 3 April 2023, and it will implement the EU Directive on copyright in the digital single market (DSM Directive) in Finland.
The purpose of the reform is to improve the use of digital technologies and the cross-border use of and access to works in addition to ensuring a well-functioning copyright market. The reform will have a significant impact for many industries.
New exceptions to copyright in digital environments
After the reform enters into force, text and data mining will largely apply the right to read is the right to mine principle. This allows the reproduction of works for the purposes of both commercial and scientific research related text and data mining. However, copyright holders may reserve their right to prohibit the use of their works for purposes other than scientific research. This prohibition must be explicit and appropriate, and it can be, for example, published on the copyright holder's website or included in the service's general terms or metadata.
These new copyright exceptions could be a significant enabler for machine learning. Their applicability for machine learning purposes is unclear, however, as noted in our recent blog posts on the topic (in Finnish).
The right to appropriate and proportionate remuneration for exploited works has been added to the reformed Copyright Act in order to protect authors and performing artists. Freedom of contract remains the guiding principle, and the law does not determine the level of appropriate remuneration. The reform however supplements the criteria for assessing the fairness of remuneration. The new criteria to be taken into account are the modes and the extent of exploitation, the economic value of the work and the basis for remuneration, and the author's or performer's contribution to the overall work.
In addition, authors have the right to obtain information on the exploitation of their works. The amendment increases the transparency of the commercial value of works by giving authors the right to obtain, at least once a year, an account of the exploitation of their work if the authors' contractual counterparts or their successors have received revenue from the exploitation of the work or if the remuneration paid to the author depends on the...
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