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A Danish man has been found guilty of uploading nude segments from protected movies and TV series on the online platform Reddit.

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

Danish police confirm he has been given a 7-month suspended sentence for copyright infringement.

Experts say the defendant was charged under a seldom-invoked provision in Danish intellectual property legislation, with the court finding that by taking the scenes out of their intended setting, the man had harmed the artists' "ethical entitlements".

He has also been found guilty of distributing more than 25 terabytes of copyrighted digital content.

From March 2022 to May 2023, the man using the alias "KlammereFyr" on Reddit uploaded sexually explicit scenes including over 100 actresses.

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

Per the Denmark's copyright protection group The Rights Alliance (TRA), his online community had more than 6,000 subscribers and participants were prompted to ask for excerpts of specific actors.

In 2023, advocates reported the incident to the authorities on behalf of the affected actors, directors and production companies, which resulted in the forum being closed down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, one of the performers whose explicit scenes were shared in the group, explained to Danish broadcasters at the period she believed there was a distinction between being seen unclothed in a film and being shown on Reddit.

The performer stated the posts constituted "exploitation".

'A significant message'

The man was arrested in September 2024 and pleaded culpable to the allegations last month.

In a statement after the verdict, the head of the Rights Alliance the organization's leader said the decision sent an "important" signal "indicating infringements of creators' 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 creator's work cannot be used in a way which violates their standing.

Copyright law expert Dr Alina Trapova informed the media the legal matter was "unusual" for its emphasis on the harm to the dignity of an performer, rather than to them financially.

How the ruling could influence nations abroad is unclear.

But she added there may be "more and more of these actions" in the future with the advancement of AI, where "the integrity of one's creative output might be compromised with greater ease".