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A Danish man has been convicted of uploading nude scenes from copyrighted movies and television shows on the social media platform Reddit.

According to a police report reviewed by BBC News, the anonymous man shared 347 clips of nude content in a subreddit he managed, which were then viewed 4.2 million times.

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

Experts explain the defendant was charged under a seldom-invoked provision in Denmark's copyright law, with the judge ruling that by taking the footage out of their intended setting, the man had harmed the performers' "moral rights".

He has additionally been found guilty of sharing more than 25 terabytes of copyrighted digital content.

From spring 2022 to mid-2023, the man known as "the pseudonym KlammereFyr" on Reddit uploaded sexually explicit scenes featuring over 100 female performers.

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

Per the Danish copyright protection group The Rights Alliance (TRA), his subreddit had more than 6,000 members and users were prompted to ask for excerpts of particular actors.

In last year, campaigners reported the incident to the police on behalf of the affected artists, directors and producers, which led to the forum being shut down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, among the actresses whose explicit content were shared in the community, told Danish broadcasters at the time she believed there was a difference between being seen unclothed in a film and being shown on Reddit.

The actress stated the uploads constituted "exploitation".

'An important message'

The defendant was arrested in September 2024 and admitted guilty to the charges last month.

In a comment following the verdict, the head of the Rights Alliance Maria Fredenslund remarked the outcome sent an "significant" message "indicating violations of creators' entitlements has repercussions".

The ruling is viewed as unique in the country for its use of the "ethical protections" clause of the national copyright law, which specifies an creator's work cannot be used in a manner which violates their reputation.

Intellectual property expert a legal scholar told the media the legal matter was "unusual" for its emphasis on the harm to the dignity of an performer, rather than to them economically.

How the case could influence other countries is uncertain.

But she added there may be "more and more of such cases" in the future with the growth of AI, where "the integrity of an individual's work might be compromised much more easily".