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A Danish man has been convicted of sharing sexually explicit segments from protected movies and television shows on the online platform Reddit.

According to a police report obtained by BBC News, the unnamed individual posted 347 video excerpts of nude content in a Reddit group he moderated, which were then watched 4.2 million times.

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

Legal analysts say the man was prosecuted under a rarely-used clause in Denmark's copyright law, with the court ruling that by removing the scenes out of their intended setting, the accused had harmed the performers' "ethical entitlements".

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

From March 2022 to mid-2023, the user known as "the pseudonym KlammereFyr" on Reddit uploaded sexually explicit scenes featuring over 100 actresses.

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

Per the Danish anti-piracy organization the Rights Alliance, his online community had more than 6,000 members and participants were prompted to ask for clips of specific performers.

In last year, campaigners reported the case to the authorities on behalf of the impacted actors, filmmakers and production companies, which led to the subreddit being shut down.

One actress, among the performers whose explicit scenes were shared in the community, explained to Danish broadcasters at the period she believed there was a difference between appearing unclothed in a film and being shown on Reddit.

The actress said the uploads constituted "exploitation".

'An important message'

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

In a comment following the verdict, TRA head Maria Fredenslund said the outcome sent an "important" message "indicating violations of artists' entitlements has consequences".

The ruling is viewed as unprecedented in the country for its application of the "ethical protections" section of the national copyright law, which states an creator's work cannot be utilized in a way which infringes upon their reputation.

Intellectual property specialist a legal scholar told BBC News the case was "unusual" for its emphasis on the harm to the dignity of an performer, rather than to them financially.

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

But she added there may be "an increasing number of such cases" in the coming years with the growth of artificial intelligence, where "the integrity of an individual's creative output might be compromised much more easily".