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A Danish man has been found guilty of sharing nude segments from protected films and TV series on the social media platform Reddit.

Based on a law enforcement report obtained by BBC News, the unnamed individual shared 347 clips of explicit content in a Reddit group he moderated, which were then watched 4.2 million times.

Danish police state he has been handed a 7-month suspended sentence for copyright infringement.

Legal analysts explain the man was charged under a rarely-used provision in Denmark's intellectual property legislation, with the judge ruling that by removing the footage out of their original context, the man had harmed the artists' "moral rights".

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

From spring 2022 to mid-2023, the user using the alias "KlammereFyr" on Reddit posted sexually explicit clips featuring over 100 female performers.

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

Per the Denmark's copyright protection organization The Rights Alliance (TRA), his subreddit had more than 6,000 subscribers and participants were encouraged to request clips of particular performers.

In last year, advocates reported the case to the police on behalf of the affected artists, filmmakers and production companies, which resulted in the forum being shut down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, among the actresses whose explicit scenes were circulated in the group, told Danish broadcasters at the period she believed there was a difference between appearing naked in a film and appearing on Reddit.

The performer stated the uploads constituted "exploitation".

'A significant signal'

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 the organization's leader said the decision sent an "important" message "indicating violations of artists' rights have consequences".

The ruling is considered unprecedented in the country for its application of the "moral rights" clause of the national copyright law, which specifies an artist's work cannot be used in a way which violates their standing.

Intellectual property expert Dr Alina Trapova informed the media the case was "rare" for its focus on the damage to the dignity of an artist, rather than to them economically.

How the case could affect other countries is uncertain.

But she added there may be "more and more of such cases" in the future with the advancement of artificial intelligence, where "the sanctity of an individual's creative output might be tempered with with greater ease".