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A Denmark-based man has been convicted of uploading nude scenes from copyrighted movies and TV series on the online platform Reddit.

According to a police report reviewed by BBC News, the anonymous individual posted 347 video excerpts of explicit content in a Reddit group he moderated, which were then watched 4.2 million-plus times.

The country's authorities confirm he has been given a 7-month deferred jail term for copyright infringement.

Experts explain the defendant was charged under a seldom-invoked clause in Denmark's copyright law, with the court finding that by removing the footage out of their intended setting, the accused had harmed the artists' "ethical entitlements".

He has additionally been convicted of sharing more than 25 TB of copyrighted data.

From spring 2022 to mid-2023, the man known as "the pseudonym KlammereFyr" on Reddit uploaded adult scenes including over 100 actresses.

He distributed them in the forum he was a administrator of.

Per the Danish anti-piracy group The Rights Alliance (TRA), his online community had more than 6,000 subscribers and participants were encouraged to ask for clips of particular actors.

In 2023, advocates filed the case to the police on behalf of the affected actors, directors and producers, which led to the subreddit being shut down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, among the actresses whose nude content were circulated in the community, explained to local media at the period she felt there was a difference between being seen naked in a film and being shown on Reddit.

The performer stated the uploads amounted to "abuse".

'An important signal'

The defendant was detained in fall 2024 and admitted culpable to the charges last month.

In a statement after the ruling, the head of the Rights Alliance the organization's leader remarked the decision sent an "significant" message "indicating infringements of artists' entitlements have consequences".

The ruling is viewed as unique in the country for its application of the "ethical protections" section of the national copyright law, which states an artist's work cannot be utilized in a way which infringes upon their standing.

Copyright law specialist a legal scholar told the media the legal matter was "unusual" for its focus on the damage to the dignity of an artist, rather than to them economically.

How the ruling could affect other countries is unclear.

But she said there may be "more and more of such cases" in the coming years with the growth of artificial intelligence, where "the integrity of an individual's work might be compromised much more easily".