What is the basis for the private copying remuneration system?
Nowadays, making copies of published material -such as music, television broadcasts, or movies- is easy, and the quality of digital copies is on par with the original. There's a growing market for consumer devices which can be used to store music, movies, and other works, and as a result, private copying keeps increasing. If there were no remuneration system in place to guarantee the rights owners of published works a fair compensation for private copying, anyone who wanted to record a movie or copy a CD from a library would have to obtain permission from the creators!
The European Union Copyright Directive states that creators need to be compensated for the private copying of their works. In Finland, the private copying remuneration system was established in 1984.
The Government sets both the scope of private copying remuneration system and the level of compensation. The remuneration is applied to recordable media and devices that are to a significant extent used for private copying of works. Currently these include, for example, mp3-players, recordable CD- and DVD-discs, external hard disks and video recorders with integrated hard disks.
The Ministry of Education and Culture decides how the collected funds will be distributed. The Ministry of Education and Culture has appointed Teosto to collect and administer the private copying remuneration until 2016.
Private copying remuneration system in Finland
- The Government decides the level of the remuneration annually.
- The remuneration is collected based on recording capacity (for analogue products the tariff is minute based).
- The scope of the remuneration includes devices that are used for private copying to a significant extent.
- The remuneration may be applied to such devices with integrated memory that are being used at home to make private copies, for example recordable CD- and DVD-discs, external hard disks and digital audio and video recorders.
- The remuneration does not apply to devices in which copies cannot be stored or that are only used for professional purposes.