🔗 Share this article

A Danish man has been convicted of uploading nude segments from protected films and television shows on the social media platform Reddit.

Based on a police document reviewed by media outlets, the unnamed individual posted 347 video excerpts of explicit scenes in a subreddit he managed, which were then watched 4.2 million-plus times.

The country's police state he has been handed a 7-month suspended sentence for copyright infringement.

Experts say the man was prosecuted under a rarely-used provision in Danish copyright law, with the court finding that by taking the scenes out of their intended setting, the man had damaged the artists' "moral rights".

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

From March 2022 to mid-2023, the user using the alias "the pseudonym KlammereFyr" on Reddit uploaded adult scenes featuring over 100 female performers.

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

Per the Denmark's anti-piracy organization The Rights Alliance (TRA), his subreddit had more than 6,000 subscribers and participants were encouraged to ask for clips of specific actors.

In last year, advocates filed the incident to the authorities on behalf of the affected artists, directors and production companies, which led to the forum being closed down.

One actress, one of the performers whose nude content were shared in the group, told local broadcasters at the time she felt there was a distinction between appearing unclothed in a film and being shown on Reddit.

The actress stated the posts constituted "abuse".

'A significant message'

The defendant was detained in September 2024 and admitted culpable to the allegations last month.

In a statement after the verdict, the head of the Rights Alliance Maria Fredenslund remarked the outcome sent an "important" signal "that infringements of artists' entitlements has repercussions".

The verdict is considered unique in the country for its application of the "moral rights" section of the Danish Copyright Act, which states an artist's creation cannot be used in a manner which infringes upon their reputation.

Intellectual property expert a legal scholar told BBC News the legal matter was "rare" for its emphasis on the damage to the integrity of an artist, rather than to them economically.

The extent to which the case could affect nations abroad is unclear.

But she added there may be "an increasing number of these actions" in the coming years with the growth of AI, where "the sanctity of an individual's creative output might be tempered with much more easily".