United States of America

Finland

Copyright and Related Rights

6. Please explain how the compulsory licence provisions in Articles 13, 14, 25f and 25h of the Copyright Act, which give anyone who has received authorization to reproduce works from an organization representing a large number of Finnish authors the right also to make copies of the works of an author who is not represented by the organization, comply with Berne Article 9(2) and TRIPS Article 13, which require limitations and exceptions to exclusive rights to be limited to certain special cases which do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the rightholder.

The clauses mentioned in the question are not compulsory licences but extensions of agreed collective licences. They concern always mass uses which would be impossible to be licensed transaction by transaction. The condition for application of these clauses is always an agreement between an organization representing a large number of rightholders and the user. The terms agreed by the organization apply to the use of the rightholders not directly represented by the organization. Because the collective management organizations are professional and efficient negotiators, they try and normally succeed in agreeing on terms which are reasonable for the rightholders they represent directly on the basis of binding mandates. The terms are as reasonable for the outsider. The organization has negotiated also on behalf of the outsider. In certain respects the rightholders not represented by the organization are in a better position than those who were directly represented on the basis of the mandates. Article 26 of the Finnish Copyright Act contains general provisions on extended collective licence provisions. The outsider has to be accorded the same treatment which the organization accords to those who had given them mandates. Secondly, the outsider has always a right to claim individual remuneration, even in cases when the organization does not accord such a position to the rightholder on behalf of whom it acted on the basis of mandates or transfers of rights. This claim is valid three years from the relevant Act of use.