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Abstract

Pursuant to the appointment decision of 21 January 2008 by the Ministry of Education, the Commission’s remit was to:
1 discuss the setting of guidelines for law-drafting, examine the need for amendments to copyright legislation and prepare guidelines to the Ministry on possible revisions, while considering societal, economic, and international developments;
2 discuss the preparation of legislative matters related to the European Union and international treaties, in order to support the Finnish government in adopting positions thereto; and
3 give proposals on such matters to the Ministry of Education.

The Copyright Commission has commenced its work by reviewing the need for amendments to the provisions in Chapter 3 of the Copyright Act. An ad hoc group of publishing industry representatives has worked within the Commission to prepare revisions
to the provisions on publishing contracts in Chapter 3 of the Copyright Act.

The Commission has assessed the development of the operation environment and examined the strains on the main stakeholders caused by the primary developmental trends.

The Commission proposes that the provisions on publishing contracts (Sections 31 - 38) be revised to correspond with the changed circumstances of the publishing industry.

With respect to several provisions of Chapter 3, the Commission has been unable to reach consensus on the proposed reforms and the grounds directly related to those reforms. The respective reforms proposed and positions taken by the representatives of the authors and the user companies are presented separately in the memorandum.

According to the author representatives, new provisions should be introduced in the Copyright Act on a general right to compensation for authors, a right for the author to claim a return of rights transferred but not used in compliance with a contract, and a right for the author to claim verification of accounts. In addition, the provision in Section 29 of the Copyright Act on adjustment of contractual terms should be revised so that authors would in practice have improved possibilities to plead unconscionability of a contractual term. The aim of the provisions is the strengthen the contractual position of the transferor of rights.

The representatives of the user companies propose that Section 28 on the prohibition on modification and further transfer be repealed, as such prohibitions impede the effective use of copyrights and cause legal uncertainty in the developed operation environment. The user companies also propose that the principle of strict interpretation of copyright transfer agreements be foregone by introducing a provision in the Act to the effect that contracts shall be interpreted in accordance with general rules of contract interpretation. Section 39 on transfer of film rights should be expanded to cover all relevant forms of use of cinematographic works.

The material included in the Commission’s report is intended as background information in the further preparation of the matter.