Copyright

Copyright refers to the author’s right to decide how their work is used, i.e., others are not entitled to use the work without the author’s permission. However, there are legal exceptions to this, such as copying for private use and quoting.    

Copyright act (404/1961) and decree (574/1995) regulate the use of publications. Electronic material is also covered by the act. The use of licensed e-materials acquired by the library is permitted for non-commercial academic purposes, such as teaching, research and studying.   

As a library user, you are free to make copies of the book you have borrowed for personal use. Likewise, you can save and print e-articles supplied by the library to a reasonable extent for your own study or research purposes.  You can also save or print individual chapters of e-books. Read more about the rights of use for e-resources on the website of UEF Library.   

The Finnish Copyright Act also allows quotation: “A work made public may be quoted, in accordance with proper usage to the extent necessary for the purpose.” (Copyright Act, Section 22). “In accordance with proper usage” means that the quotation must have a relevant connection to the work in which the quotation is used, and the source must always be mentioned.     

If you copy text written by someone else and use it in your own work without proper reference, you are guilty of plagiarism. The next chapter discusses this in more detail.   

You can find further reading on copyrights on the Copyright in Finland page of the Ministry of Education and on the Kopiraittila Academy, a guide to copyright produced by Kopiosto ry and the Ministry of Education.