A teacher has the copyright to the works s/he makes and has the right to decide how the works may be used. Generally the university as the employer has no rights to the employees’ or teachers’ copyright protected works. Transfer of rights has to be agreed upon separately. More information, see Copyright and Employment and Teacher as the producer of copyright protected material by Pirjo Kontkanen, laywer, University of Helsinki.
A student has the copyright to his/her work. Using a student’s work requires permission from the student. But it does not mean that the permission should be asked from every student when a teacher uses students’ work, for example, reading out their essays.
It is allowed to make a few copies of published works for private use, but teaching is not considered as private use. Teaching is usually regarded as performing to the public. The audience should be in the same space (a classroom or e-learning environment) as the presented work. Please note that this applies only to teaching without separate reimbursement.
When using published works in teaching materials, teachers need to follow the terms and conditions of the materials as well as proper referencing practices for all the materials they use. For example, teachers are allowed to include literary works and compositions in a compilation used in public education, but there are terms and conditions and regulations when doing so. More information, see Compilations for Public Education by Anna Keune and Sanna Vilmusenaho, Aalto University.
Please pay attention to the different terms of use of different materials in teaching (see also the section below on Distributing and sharing):
- Kopiosto copying licence: Teachers are allowed to make copies of published works for teaching purpose by photocopying or other similar methods with contractual licences. A valid Kopiosto copying licence allows the partial copying of works and the printing of digital materials. You may copy and scan printed publications and copy texts and images freely available online to the extent required by the purpose of use whenever the copying is essential to furthering the education and research. Same as texts, published photographs are also allowed to be included in the teaching materials with a valid Kopiosto licence, and also based on proper citation and scientific representation. When copies of protected works are used, the name of the author or photographer should be acknowledged in accordance with good scientific practices for the attribution of authorship.
Photocopying workbooks, exercise or answer books is prohibited. In distance learning, teachers may copy model answers included in the solution book to be sent to the student, on condition that the teacher is in possession of the book in question.
With text and images in printed publications, teachers can scan:
With text and images of online materials, teachers can:
Digital copies prepared for teaching may be saved so that the digital copies are only accessible to the teaching group for whom they have been prepared. Digital copies prepared for teaching may be distributed via the secure network or via email to the teaching group.
The digital copies have to be reported to Kopiosto. Teachers can do this at Kopiosto’s webpage (in Finnish). Please contact the library (library@hanken.fi) if you need any help.
More information about how many copies teachers can produce for students participating in a course during a single course in higher education institutions, see Kopiosto licence for copying of publications and works at universities and universities of applied sciences.
See also Photocopying by Pirjo Kontkanen and Photocopying by Anna Keune and Sanna Vilmusenaho.
If you want to use or copy material more extensively or in a different manner than enabled by Kopiosto copying licence, you can request a permission directly from the author or publisher.
The scope of Kopiosto's copying licence does not include music, moving pictures or computer software. Nor does it apply to materials under independent licence, agreements or other authorisations of use, such as digital learning materials and materials shared under the Creative Commons licence. Creative Commons is a licensing system in which the author defines the rights of his/her work for the users. The author thus allows the users to utilize his/her work more broadly than the copyright laws would otherwise permit. With Creative Commons licenses, images and other materials may be copied and used in educational materials under the terms of the license. More information, see Creative Commons licences in this LibGuide.
Other permissions may also permit the use of works. Therefore, always need to check the terms and conditions of the sites you use.
More information about materials not covered by the Kopiosto permissible digital copying and use, see What materials can I copy? and What is not allowed to be copied? with Kopiosto's copying licence at higher education institutions.
With images used in teaching, please take into account personal data protection regulations if there is any identifiable person in a picture. And note that all author information needs to be properly referenced, even if the picture was taken by yourself. More information, see Open science and use of images: Teaching materials by Aalto University.
- Online free content is protected by copyright and may not be automatically copied into educational materials. Instead of copying, you can link, cite or refer to an open online course materials for teaching purpose. When linking to licensed e-resources from an online course, it is important to create links that also work remotely outside the university network (proxy links). It is also useful to create persistent links (permalinks), as links copied from the address bar are too long and may easily stop working. More information about how to create proxy links and permanent links to various databases and e-journals, see Hanken's instructions on Links to Articles and E-books and E-resources in teaching by Tritonia.
- Paid licensed e-materials inducing databases, e-books, online journals and other e-materials may be used for teaching, study and research purposes. Hanken Library has subscribed e-resources via the Finnish National Electronic Library (FinELib), and directly from the publishers and database vendors. Terms and conditions vary by each e-resource. More information, see E-resources and their access rights via FinELib. Note that e-books with single user license in Hanken's Hanna are poorly suited as course books. If you still want to use such an e-book for your course, please contact the library (library@hanken.fi) so the library may investigate the possibility of extending the license.
If the article or other material you are looking for is not part of Hanken library collections, contact the library and suggest the material to be acquired. It is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the terms of use of each e-material.
- Presenting music or audio record is allowed for teaching purpose in a closed course environment. Record can be reproduced from the CD or internet. Presenting music publicly requires permission, for example, from the artist and the producer. More information, see Music in Art Universities Copyright Advice by Aalto University.
- Film works and plays CANNOT be presented without permission. In videos it is always needed to consider if the work is film work or not. For this subject there are no practical guidelines. Permission for presenting film works can be acquired from Tuotos ry (Finnish film works) and M&M Viihdepalvelu Oy (international film works).
- Web pages which do not include moving pictures can be presented in teaching.
- Embedding online media as a part of teaching material is only allowed if the service provider gives such an opportunity to embed media.
- With TV and radio programmes:
More information on Which programmes are allowed to be presented and recorded? and Other instructions for the use of TV programmes in education, see Use of TV programmes in education on Kopiosto’s webpage.
- Social media materials such as images and texts in discussion forums and blogs shared by private individuals are not covered by Kopiosto’s copying licence. Terms of use of the services need to be followed, and consent needs to be obtained from the individuals if you want to use these texts and images in research and teaching. The General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union (GDPR) applies. See Collecting personal data (what to do when collecting secondary data from online forum/social media) in the LibGuide on Research data management (RDM).
Kopiosto's copying licence allows for limited adjusting and modifying of text, images or photos for the teaching purpose. For example, teachers can translate a text to another language, modify an image or add highlights or notes to a text, image or photo to illustrate the subject of the teaching situation.
Please note that:
It is allowed to distribute only openly shared materials with an open license. Distributing other kinds of works is forbidden without permission. License agreements with database suppliers usually do not permit redistribution. This means that uploading digital copies (i.e. pdf-files of articles) of paid licensed e-materials to Moodle is not allowed, even if password protected. Instead you give the permanent link to the article, preceded by the address to Hanken’s proxy server. More information about how to construct the permanent Links to Articles and E-books on Hanken library's page. Teachers can also check E-resources in teaching by Tritonia to find out how to create links to articles, e-journals and e-books.
Openly licenced materials can be shared without permission. To share openly licensed materials, you can copy the link, send the link by e-mail or share the link in social media.
It is allowed to share with and give students the links to the materials, for example, a YouTube-link, for the students to view the material themselves. This is regarded as private use. Linking should be made in the way that the viewer understands that the material is in the other platform than the teaching materials.
Teachers' or students' presentations can be saved without permission only in temporary use and in connection with the teaching, for example, studying the presentation for an exam by a student, which is considered as private use.
Recordings can be made, for example, for presentation’s evaluation purpose, but they cannot be stored and should be deleted afterwards. Recordings can be shown only to those who were present during the teaching. Recordings shown via remote access requires permission from the recording’s creator and performer.
Please refer to Copyright: Use of materials by Lappeenranta University of Technology LUT.
Teachers are encouraged to publish their teaching resources in the National Library for Open Educational Resources (OERs). You can log in with your Haka user ID. Please click on "My open educational resources" in the top line, and then on "Upload a new resource" on the right side. Then please add information about your teaching materials and select a suitable license for it. Follow the instructions there and fill in the form.
When publishing educational resources, ensure that you have the necessary rights to publish the resources (e.g., copyright). Everyone who has made a significant contribution to the teaching resource, including the students, shall be properly acknowledged. You need to ask the co-authors and students for permission and consent for the use and publication of the materials they created.
It is recommended to publish educational resources using a Creative Commons licence CC BY 4.0 or CC BY-SA 4.0. The recommended format for a licence is: © [Author Name], Hanken School of Economics, 2021. CC BY 4.0/CC BY-SA 4.0.
Open educational resources and other digital content shall comply with accessibility requirements. See especially the requirement for transcription of video and audio materials in 
Hanken's instructions regarding transcription of material within the European Accessibility Act framework (PDF in Swedish and English).
More information, see:
- Operight (in Finnish and Swedish).
- Copyright in teaching by Pirjo Kontkanen, laywer, University of Helsinki.
- Art University Copyright Advice by Aalto University.
- Copyright by Lappeenranta University of Technology LUT.