Copyright basics
When does copyright protection arise?
Copyright arises when a work is original in the sense that it is the intellectual creation of the author. Works are protected as artistic or literary works.
Some types of works are listed as examples in the Copyright Act, but any original work gets copyright protection irrespective of genre or classification. The work does not need to be complete; drafts can also receive protection, if they are sufficiently original in their artistic or literary form.
The Court of Justice of the European Union has provided decisions defining the originality criteria of a work. Copyright is liable to apply only in relation to a subject-matter which is original in the sense that it is its author’s own intellectual creation. An intellectual creation is an author’s own if it reflects the author’s personality. That is the case if the author was able to express his creative abilities in the production of the work by making free and creative choices.
According to legal practice, a result produced with the help of an artificial intelligence system cannot be granted copyright protection. More information: Artificial Intelligence and Copyright | Aalto University
Who does copyright belong to?
Copyright can only arise for a natural person, not a legal entity like a university, registered company or association. However, the author can transfer all or part of their economic rights to a legal entity, for example to a publisher or to a university or employer. A legal entity, therefore, can only be the owner of copyrights transferred with an agreement. Agreements concerning moral rights are limited so they can only be limited in regard to use in character and extent.
About how Aalto University agrees on copyright with employees, please see Employment and Copyright section.
Joint works
For joint works, copyright belongs collectively to the authors. They can only decide together on the transfer of copyrights and the exploitation of the work. However, each author has an independent right to claim infringement of their rights. This highlights the need to agree on the use of copyright already when collaboration begins, such as when collecting research data or planning a coauthored publication.
Combined works
In combined works, the inputs of different authors form separate, detachable works. Each author can decide independently on their own share of copyright, its transfer, and its use.
In a combined work, the contribution of the author can be separated. In a Supreme Court case, KKO 1956 II 76 (Mustalaisparoni), the court noted that the music and the script of the operetta were both independent works. The author of the text was not shown to have participated in composing the music in a creative way that would have made him a co-author of the musical work. A claim for compensation for performing the operetta was approved for the script used, but was rejected for the music.
Authors of a combined work can independently decide on their copyright protected content, its transfer, and use.
Copyright owners and contributors
Copyright is created for the person who makes the creative choices that define the original literary or artistic form of the work.
Copyright for a scientific publication is created for those authors of the publication, who give the publication its literary form. However, from the perspective of research ethics, those contributing to the research output should be identified and their contributions described specifically, and contributors who are not copyright owners should be included.
Please read more in Research and Copyright section.
Which rights does copyright include?
Moral rights
Moral rights include the right to claim authorship of the work (paternity right) and the right to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of the work (integrity right). Paternity right requires the author's name to be indicated in a manner that is deemed good practice in the field.
Respect for the author's work protects its artistic or literary quality. A work may not be modified in a way that offends the author's literary or artistic value or character, nor may it be made accessible to the public in a form or context that offends the author's character.
Economic rights
The author has the exclusive right of reproduction and the right to make the work available to the public. Permission from the copyright holder is always needed for use of the work, unless a copyright exception applies.
The author has control over the reproduction of their work. Reproduction includes all forms of duplicating the work such as recording and copying. Also, photographing a work is considered reproduction under the copyright law.
The author has the exclusive right to decide on making the work available to the public. This includes disseminating the work, for example, on a website, television, and radio. The work may also be made available via an intranet or a private social media account. Public lending, renting, and distribution of copies of the work are considered making the work available to the public. Public performance or display of the work to a present audience is also considered making the work available. Selling and renting works are uses protected by copyright law. Once a copy of the work has been sold or permanently transferred with the author's consent, that copy may be further distributed (Copyright Act, Section 19).
The use of a work requires the consent of the copyright holder or a suitable exemption. The author may relinquish their economic rights, in whole or in part.
As the author has the right under copyright law to create copies of their work even in a modified form or as translations, modifying or translating the work is within the author's exclusive domain. The right to modify or to change a work has to be agreed specifically with the author.
Related Rights and Database Protection
Copyright ownership can only be borne to those who create an original literary or artistic form, so for example databases that do not have the originality of literary form do not merit copyright, but they can be protected as catalogue or sui generis database. Databases and catalogues are protected as investment, and the EU sui generis database right and the Nordic catalogue right are born to the investor, for example to university as an employer.
The Copyright Act also protects related rights, which include the related rights of performing artists and the protection of the producer of a phonogram or audiovisual work. The producer's right also protects investment, and it arises to the investor, usually the company.
When does copyright protection end?
The duration of copyright protection begins when the work is sufficiently original to receive protection, and in the EU/EEA area and, for example, in the USA, the length of protection is the author's lifetime plus 70 years from the end of the year of the author's death.
After the author's death, rights are managed by the persons or organisation that inherited the copyright. Once the protection period of the economic rights of the work ends, the protection period of the moral rights also ends. Therefore, the work can be altered after the protection period.
The Ministry of Education and Culture could prohibit a use where a work is publicly treated in a manner which violates cultural interests, but such a decision has not been made in recent decades.