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According to the 2019 survey, the total amount of private copying in Finland has slightly grown

Ministry of Education and Culture
Publication date 11.7.2019 10.37
News item
Mobile phone and computer are still the most common devices into which music content is copied.

Based on the survey, altogether about one million Finns copy music, movies and TV-programs for private use. The total amount of annual private copying among the 15–79 year olds is approximately 275–297 million music and video files. In the 2018 survey, the estimate of the amount of private copying was 242–264 million files.

Music covered by legal private copying was copied by 210 000 and video material by over 890 000 people between 15–79 years of age, who live in Finland. There were overall over a million copiers of music and video material. The number of people making copies has been in decline for the last couple of years. In 2014 there were still over 1.6 million people making private copies.

In 2019, the estimate of the number of copies is slightly higher than in 2018. Music files have been copied more than in 2018. Regarding video files, the number is almost the same as in 2018. Finns (15–79 years of age) made altogether 275–297 million files of legal private copies during the year. In the 2018 survey, the corresponding estimate of private copying was 242–264 million files.

Mobile phone and computer are still the most common devices into which music content is copied. The most common platform for copying video content is still a recordable set-top box.

The most often used original sources for copying music are streaming services (material saved in offline mode), freely downloadable files from the internet (e.g. artists’ own web pages) and streaming services (material saved in offline mode), as well as original CD discs. Copies of videos are most often copies of TV programmes.

On the most recent occasion of copying music has been copied from streaming services clearly more often than in 2018. Copying of TV programmes on recordable set-top boxes has decreased slightly when compared with previous years.

Based on the research results the number of users of streaming services for music and videos, as well as of chargeable web TV services continues to increase.

Over half of those who had copied music would have acquired the copied material from some other source, if the possibility of copying did not exist. More than third of those who copied music would have used chargeable sources for acquiring the music. The shares of those who acquired the music material some other way and those who used a chargeable source for it are lower than in the 2018 study.

Over a third of those who had copied video files would have acquired the copied video material in some other way, if the possibility of copying did not exist. There has been no significant change in the amount from 2018. Chargeable source for acquiring video files would have been used by a similar share of respondents as in the 2018 study (18 % of those who had saved video content).

Three out of four of the Finns have printed, saved, photocopied or scanned graphic material for private use during the past year. The most frequently used ways of copying are printing and saving. They also comprise the largest number of copies (number of pages). Photocopied or scanned materials are most often official forms or invoices/bank statements, printed materials in turn are most often official forms, photographs, educational materials or recipes.

Publishers of the printed or saved graphic materials are most often private persons (webpages or blogs), public administration or a company. Estimate of the number of pages covered by remuneration is 534-1276 pages (according to the classification of material types used by Kopiosto).

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The main objective of the survey was to determine the amount of private copying of music and video material in Finland. Similar information was recently gathered in 2018 by Taloustutkimus.

The survey also gives a comprehensive view into the use of entertainment electronics by the Finnish population, as well as their consumer-behaviour regarding music and video content. The study also investigated the harm caused by copying of music and video material. In addition, the private copying of graphic material was investigated.

 
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