Removal of categories of rights or geographical areas from Teosto’s administration

If you wish, you can completely remove one or more categories of rights from Teosto’s administration. In this case, we will not represent your works in the category of rights at all. Instead, you can decide on the use of your works yourself or you can allow another party to administer that particular category of rights.

You may also remove your rights from Teosto’s administration to a limited extent, which means that Teosto may represent all of your rights in the geographical area, continent or countries of your choice, but another party – for example, a copyright organisation in another country – may represent the rights you remove from Teosto in other geographical areas, continents or countries.

Self-administration of categories of rights and geographical areas can also be done in a mixed way, i.e. you can self-administer certain categories of rights in the country of your choice and either handle licences and invoicing yourself or leave them to the copyright organisation of that country by becoming a member of the organisation. This may make sense if a significant portion of your royalties come from a country other than Finland.

A form for removing categories of rights or areas can be found at the bottom of this page.

List of categories of rights and countries belonging to different geographical areas

Find out whether removing rights from Teosto is worthwhile for you

Teosto is an affordable and fast option in Europe

• Teosto does not charge processing fees for royalties from other Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland)
• For royalties from other European countries, we charge a processing fee of only 3.5%
• We collect royalties from the Nordic countries and other European countries faster and more affordably than a non-European organisation does.

Teosto collects and distributes royalties for all categories of rights, also from abroad, but royalties from abroad are distributed more slowly than if you are a direct customer or member of a specific country’s organisation.

However, different organisations have their own licencing practices, distribution schedules and expense percentages that differ from those of Teosto, so before removing rights, you should carefully consider whether transferring rights to another copyright organisation or collective management organisation is profitable for you. Different organisations may also have different restrictive regulations and schedules regarding the termination of a customer relationship or a membership. It is a good idea to learn more about these in advance.

Please note that the removal of categories of rights or geographical areas is applicable to all your works covered by Teosto’s Membership Agreement. You cannot divide categories of rights into smaller entities either.

Agreeing on removal

If you remove a category of rights or a geographical area from Teosto’s administration, Teosto/NCB will no longer grant licences for the use your works and will not collect and distribute royalties to you for the use of your music in that category of rights or geographical area.

Therefore, you should always agree on the removal of the work with other possible authors and publishers, i.e. rightholders. The removal of rights becomes valid with the removal notification you submit to us, even if you have not obtained the consent of the other rightholders to remove the work, but the lack of the consent of the others may lead to claims for remuneration that they may present to you if they do not agree to the removal when they become aware of it.

If the use rights granted by Teosto include an extended collective licence, as referred to in section 26 of the Copyright Act, you are considered to have denied the use of your works in the removed categories of rights and areas, on the basis of the extended collective licence, in situations where you have the right, based on law, for such a denial.

However, it is not necessary to obtain consent from the other rightholders of the work if you transfer the administration of rights to another organisation that meets the requirements for reliable rights administration. Generally, these are well-known copyright organisations with which Teosto collaborates.

How is a category of rights or an area transferred under self-administration?

You can transfer (remove) the rights by filling in the form that you can find by clicking the link, accepting the terms and conditions and submitting the form to us. For rightholders under 18 years of age, the legal guardian accepts the terms and conditions in the removal form.

The removal of categories of rights or geographical areas will become valid on two dates in a year

• Changes made during 1 January–30 June will become valid on 30 June.
• Changes made during 1 July–31 December will become valid on 31 December.

If the removal requires the consent of other potential authors and publishers of the works, you should obtain these consents in writing and keep them for future reference. 

Please note that you cannot transfer works under self-administration if teosto has receivables from you – for example, advance distribution payments that have not yet been fully deducted from your distributions.

Form for Removal of categories or geographical areas from Teosto’s administration
Form for members under 18 years: Removal of categories or geographical areas from Teosto’s administration

Submitting Work Declarations After Withdrawal

If you are a member both in Teosto and an organization in another country, submit work notifications to both organisations, except if the other organization you are a member of is one of the following:

• PRS for Music
• STIM
• Sabam
• BumaStemra
• TONO
• Koda

If the other organisation you belong to is one of the above, it is sufficient to submit the work notification to either that organisation or Teosto, as we use the same ICE work and distribution database.

Transferring withdrawn rights or geographical areas to Teosto’s administration

If you wish to return previously withdrawn rights to Teosto’s administration or transfer rights or geographical areas that have not previously been administered by us, do so by completing and submitting the form below.

Transfers of rights to Teosto will take effect as soon as we have registered your notification.

Form: Assignment of categories of rights and geographical areas to Teosto’s administration
Form for members under 18 years: Assignment of categories of rights and geographical areas to Teosto’s administration