PLR (Public Lending Right) in Finland is administered by three collecting societies: Sanasto (written works – authors, translators), Kopiosto (visual works – illustrators, photographers) and Teosto (musical works, sheet music included – composers).
The legislative base of the Finnish PLR system is section 19 of the Finnish Copyright Act, revised in 2016. The approval to administer PLR is granted to the organisations by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture which also supervises PLR payments. The three organisations work in close co-operation in order to assure that the various groups of right holders are equally treated. Organisations also are responsible to mutually agree upon the redistribution of the government granted funds.
PLR funding is provided by the Finnish government and payments are made to right holders by reference to the number of occasions on which their works are lent out. Sanasto receives statistics regarding the loans from both public libraries as well as educational and research libraries. Remuneration may be claimed only for lending that has occurred within the last three years.
The current annual level of PLR funding in Finland is a lump sum of 14,2 million euros (year 2019). The sum covers over 87 million annual loans including both public libraries and educational and research libraries. In 2019 the Rate Per Loan received by the right holder is 26 cents.
