Copyright

Copyright refers to the author’s right to decide how their work is used, i.e., others do not have the right 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 the Copyright Decree (574/1995) regulate the use of publications. Electronic materials are also protected 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 may save and print e-articles supplied by the library in reasonable quantities for your own study or research purposes.  You may 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 permits 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 acknowledged.     

If you copy text written by someone else in your own work without providing an appropriate reference, you are committing plagiarism. The next chapter discusses this in more detail.   

For further reading on copyright, see the Copyright in Finland page of the Ministry of Education and Culture and on the Kopiraittila (available only in Finnish and Swedish), a guide to copyright produced by Kopiosto ry.