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A Danish man has been found guilty of sharing sexually explicit scenes from copyrighted movies and TV series on the social media platform Reddit.

Based on a law enforcement report obtained by BBC News, the unnamed individual posted 347 video excerpts of nude content in a subreddit he managed, which were then watched 4.2 million times.

Danish authorities confirm he has been handed a seven-month deferred sentence for copyright infringement.

Experts explain the man was charged under a rarely-used clause in Denmark's copyright law, with the judge ruling that by removing the footage out of their original context, the man had damaged the performers' "moral rights".

He has also been found guilty of distributing more than 25 TB of protected data.

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

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

According to the Denmark's anti-piracy organization The Rights Alliance (TRA), his subreddit had more than 6,000 members and participants were encouraged to request excerpts of particular actors.

In last year, campaigners filed the incident to the authorities on behalf of the affected actors, filmmakers and producers, which resulted in the forum being closed down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, one of the actresses whose nude content were circulated in the group, told local broadcasters at the time she believed there was a difference between appearing unclothed in a film and appearing on Reddit.

The actress stated the uploads amounted to "exploitation".

'An important signal'

The defendant was arrested in September 2024 and pleaded culpable to the allegations recently.

In a comment after the verdict, the head of the Rights Alliance Maria Fredenslund remarked the outcome sent an "important" message "indicating infringements of artists' entitlements have consequences".

The ruling is considered unprecedented in Denmark for its application of the "ethical protections" clause of the Danish Copyright Act, which states an artist's creation cannot be utilized in a way which infringes upon their reputation.

Intellectual property expert a legal scholar told the media the legal matter was "rare" for its focus on the damage to the dignity of an artist, rather than to them financially.

The extent to which the ruling could affect other countries is unclear.

But she said there may be "an increasing number of such cases" in the coming years with the growth of artificial intelligence, where "the integrity of one's work might be tempered with with greater ease".