🔗 Share this article

A Danish man has been found guilty of uploading sexually explicit segments from copyrighted films and TV series on the social media platform Reddit.

According to a law enforcement document obtained by media outlets, the unnamed individual shared 347 video excerpts of nude scenes in a subreddit he managed, which were then viewed 4.2 million-plus times.

Danish police state he has been given a seven-month suspended jail term for violating copyright laws.

Experts explain the man was prosecuted under a seldom-invoked clause in Denmark's intellectual property legislation, with the court finding that by taking the footage out of their original context, the accused had damaged the artists' "moral rights".

He has also been convicted of sharing more than 25 TB of protected data.

From March 2022 to mid-2023, the user using the alias "KlammereFyr" on Reddit posted adult clips including over 100 actresses.

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

According to the Danish copyright protection group The Rights Alliance (TRA), his online community had more than 6,000 subscribers and participants were encouraged to ask for clips of particular actors.

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

Andrea Vagn Jensen, one of the performers whose nude content were shared in the community, told local broadcasters at the time she believed there was a difference between appearing unclothed in a movie and appearing on Reddit.

The actress said the posts amounted to "exploitation".

'A significant signal'

The man was arrested in fall 2024 and pleaded guilty to the charges last month.

In a statement following the ruling, the head of the Rights Alliance the organization's leader said the outcome sent an "important" message "indicating violations of creators' entitlements has consequences".

The verdict is viewed as unprecedented in Denmark for its application of the "ethical protections" section of the national copyright law, which states an artist's creation cannot be utilized in a manner which violates their reputation.

Copyright law specialist Dr Alina Trapova informed BBC News the legal matter was "unusual" for its emphasis on the damage to the dignity of an performer, rather than to them economically.

How the case could influence nations abroad is uncertain.

But she said there may be "more and more of these actions" in the coming years with the advancement of artificial intelligence, where "the sanctity of one's work might be compromised much more easily".