Copyright Issues in Education

This publication discusses themes related to the use of copyrighted material in educational activities. The aim is to identify the key issues that should be taken into consideration in the development of the copyright system as well as in further research.

The use of digital learning materials has become common in Finnish schools in recent years. Licenses are typically negotiated centrally by the National Board of Education. In the use of digital material, there are challenges related to the flexible and versatile use of different types of content. Schools seem to have a need for material which can be modified, further developed and combined in different ways in teaching. Typically, the use of material made by the teachers themselves is agreed upon informally, and there is a need for transparent procedures in the distribution of such material.

In Finland, copyright information related to teaching is widely available in various forms, but the accessibility of information may be inadequate. There are significant differences in the level of teachers’ copyright knowledge, and legal uncertainty may arise especially in the use of digital material.

An English summary is presented on p. 4–5 of the publication.

Jukka Kortelainen, Nathalie Lefever & Tiina Kautio: Tekijänoikeuskysymykset opetustoiminnassa – Kartoitus tekijänoikeustietämyksestä ja aineistojen käytöstä. Cupore webpublications 54.

ISBN: 978-952-7200-41-4 (pdf), ISSN: 1796-9263 (pdf)

Since 2018 Cupore has been assessing the operation of the Finnish copyright system on the basis of annually changing themes. The study at hand is a part of this continuous assessment work, which is based on a methodological framework developed at Cupore.