Policy Observatory
Finnish Supreme Court: unauthorized copying of employer's databases and files is a copyright offence
Mon 21 Sep 2015, 18:14
The Finnish Supreme Court has recently given a decision on unauthorized copying of databases and files (KKO:2015:42). A former employee of a company had, during the notice period just before termination of the employment, copied databases and hundreds of other files in breach of the Copyright Act (404/1961, as amended) from the employer's information systems with the intention to make profit.
The Supreme Court held that the said copying violated the former employer's exclusive rights in the catalogues, tables, programs and databases, in which a large number of information was compiled and the compilation of which had required substantial investment.