Copyright to name days

The University of Helsinki holds the copyright to its name day lists, including the name day lists of Finnish- and Swedish-speakers and the name day lists of cats, dogs and horses. The right is based on the section on catalogues in the Copyright Act. The protection granted to name day lists was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2000.

The use of name days is usually subject to a copyright fee in accordance with the Almanac Office’s price list. However, name day information can be published freely if no more than two weeks of name day information or more than 15 names from the alphabetical list are published at a time.

Name days in printed calendars

The publication of name days in printed calendars is subject to copyright. The copyright fee is based on the number of copies printed. In bilingual calendars with names of both Finnish- and Swedish-speakers, the fee is one and a half times that of monolingual calendars.

Name days in the media

Name day information can be freely published in newspapers and magazines, as well as on the radio and TV, if no more than two weeks of name day information or more than 15 names from the alphabetical list are published at a time. The publication of longer lists is subject to a copyright fee. In print publications, the fee is based on the number of printed copies; for other media, the fees are agreed on a case-by-case basis.

The media also have the option of buying name day lists from the Almanac Office as electronic documents for purposes not subject to copyright.

Name days on the internet

Name day information can be freely published on the internet if no more than two weeks of name day information or more than 15 names from the alphabetical list are published on the website at a time. Likewise, a name search is not subject to copyright fees if it results in information concerning only a couple of days. Publication fees for larger materials are agreed on a case-by-case basis.

If they wish, website administrators can purchase name day lists from the Almanac Office as electronic documents for purposes not subject to copyright.

Name days in mobile applications

Publishing name days in mobile applications is always subject to copyright. The reason for this is that even if the customer usually sees only a fraction of the name day list at a time, the name day list for the whole year was handed over when the application was sold or distributed.

In 2013, the Copyright Council issued a statement to the University of Helsinki Almanac Office on the protection of name day lists in mobile applications (2013:8). According to the Copyright Council, the use of name days in a mobile application is always based on the use of the entire name day list, even if the owner of the mobile device can only access a fraction of the information in the list when using the application:

“A copy of the name day list can be made accessible to the application from the service provider’s server (online use), or a copy of the name day list can be downloaded from the server to each mobile device running the application. Regardless of the details of the technical implementation, it always involves producing one or more copies of the name day list and making them available to the public, and this comes under the scope of the catalogue protection referred to in section 49 of the Copyright Act.”

In mobile applications, the copyright fee for name days is charged based on the number of applications sold. Because the sales prices of mobile applications are lower than those of printed calendars, the fees charged for name days in mobile applications are also lower.