Questions regarding other intellectual property rights may arise in connection with teaching work and preparing learning materials. As with the preparation of research publications, teachers preparing learning materials must ensure the following:
- Correct references to sources and authors
- Proper grounds for direct quotations (proper grounds for using a direct quote include illustration, clarification and provision of background information).
- The use of learning or other materials created by somebody else, including images, PowerPoint slides, YouTube videos and publications (or parts thereof) sought for teaching purposes, is based on the consent of or an agreement concluded with the copyright holder OR a user licence OR the agreement concluded with Kopiosto regarding the use of materials for educational purposes.
Consent for the use of copyright-protected materials must be acquired from the author in advance. The consent can be acquired, for example, via email, in which case the emails must be retained. When acquiring the consent, it advisable to agree on how and for how long the materials will be used as well as the number of students using them. The copyright holder is entitled to ask for reasonable compensation for the use of the material. However, no compensation is usually deemed necessary for using materials for educational purposes.
Students own the rights to their own texts and other output, including any materials they create in connection with course assignments. This means using materials created by students as learning materials or for illustrative purposes is subject to the students’ consent.
It is safe to use licenced materials. A good way to select, for example, online materials, is to limit the search function to display open-licence materials only. For useful tips, see here (in Finnish).
Materials may be used for educational purposes more extensively based on legislation and agreement. Kopiosto has facilitated the use of copyright-protected materials for educational purposes by concluding an agreement with the representatives of Finnish institutions of higher education. The agreement allows materials and works to be published and copied more extensively for educational purposes. Even so, the author and source must always be properly cited.
You can check the scope of the agreement here.
To check how many copies you can produce during a course, see here.
Also, be sure to check what you may not copy on the basis of the licence acquired by institutions of higher education.
In accordance with the Copyright Act, in educational activities, a work made public, performed by a teacher or a student, may be reproduced by direct recording of sound or image for temporary use in educational activities. A copy thus made may not be used for other purposes.