We distribute public lending remunerations to visual artists. If you have created or took images or photographs for a book, you can register as a visual artist of books at the public lending remuneration service.
Images that grant visual artists the right to be compensated include illustration, comics, picture of artworks, photograph and cover image.
Once you have registered as a visual artist of a publication, you are entitled to be compensated for the lending of the publication in question as long as the compensation is included in the lending statistics.
The range of publications that receives remunerations varies annually depending on lendings. The public lending right scheme applies to books that have been lent the most: 50,000 publications that have been lent the most of all public lendings are eligible for remunerations.
The current remuneration distribution is based on the public lending statistics of 2017–2020. The public lending remunerations for each year are distributed for three years from the start of the distribution.
The public lending remuneration is an author-specific remuneration, and authors must register to the system. The minimum amount of remunerations to be distributed is EUR 10.
Taxation of copyright remunerations
Copyright remunerations are subject to withholding tax. We will withhold tax from your remunerations based on your tax rate. We will receive your withholding tax rate from the Tax Administration at the start of each calendar year. If you are a new customer, please submit a copy of your tax card for the payments in the first year. Pensioners and minors must submit their tax cards to us every year.
Please also check your tax rate entered on our public lending remunerations service. If there are any changes to your withholding tax information during the year, please inform us of this by submitting your new tax card. We only pay remunerations to authors whose valid withholding tax rate is known to us. We cannot make any adjustments to the withholding tax afterwards. The withholding tax is not applied to remunerations under EUR 20.
If you are a permanent resident of a foreign country, in which case you are under restricted tax liability in Finland, we will need a tax-at-source report (the pdf is in Finnish) from you. In the event that your restricted tax liability ends, please submit a valid tax card to us.
You do not need to inform the Tax Administration separately of the copyright remunerations paid to you; we will submit the information on your behalf.
You can register as the visual artist of your publications in the Kopiosto public lending remuneration service. In the service, you can find publications eligible for remunerations and register as an author of one, review and update your customer details and browse your own publications.
Tips for searching for publications in the public lending remuneration service:
The data concerning images in the lending statistics used as the basis of remuneration distribution are regrettably often incomplete. This is why it is advisable to search for books you have provided images to in the list of publications eligible for lending remunerations with the main author’s name (in most cases, the libraries’ catalogues use the writer’s name), the title of the book and/or the ISBN identifier one search term at a time.
Indicate the types of images (e.g. illustration, comic, photograph) you have created for the publication. If you hold more than one role of a visual artist of a publication, please indicate the type of images you have created in the largest quantity.
The amount of author-specific remunerations concerning a single publication depends on the ratio between the number of images reported by the author and the total number of images in the publication. Please indicate the proportion of images created by you in the publication as a percentage (1–100 %) or a number (number of own images/total number of images in the publication). Depending on circumstances, the proportion of images report can be based on an estimate, accurate information or an agreement between the authors.
In Finland, the administration of public lending rights and the distribution of remunerations are performed by three copyright organisations. Kopiosto, Sanasto and Teosto are in charge of the public lending right schemes of authors of visual arts and photography, authors of literary works and authors of musical works, respectively.
The public lending right scheme applies to books and phonograms available to be lent at public libraries. In practice, it applies to the copyrighted material of printed and audio books, phonograms and sheet music: text, images and music.
Public lending remunerations are distributed to text, image and music authors from the EEA. According to law, authors are entitled to remunerations when their works, such as the text, images, notes or phonograms, are lent to the public. The distribution of the public lending remunerations financed by the Ministry of Education and Culture to authors is based on the lending statistics of public libraries. The allocated sum to be used for the public lending right scheme is defined annually in the state budget.
Public lending remuneration work group
Matters concerning the public lending right of visual artists are processed by an expert group consisting of rightsholders’ representatives in cooperation with Kopiosto. The Kopiosto member organisations from the field of visual arts are represented in the work group: the Central Association of Finnish Photographic Organisations, Finnfoto, Grafia − Association of Visual Communication Designers in Finland, the Finnish Illustration Association, the Finnish Comics Professionals, and Visual Artists’ Copyright Society Kuvasto.
Kopiosto public lending remuneration work group members:
Tommi Nilsson, Visual Artists’ Copyright Society Kuvasto, chairman
Asta Boman-Björkell, The Finnish Illustration Association
Kalervo Pulkkinen, The Finnish Comics Professionals
Katri Soramäki, Grafia − Association of Visual Communication Designers in Finland
Mikko Säteri, The Central Association of Finnish Photographic Organizations, Finnfoto