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A Danish citizen has been found guilty of sharing sexually explicit scenes from protected films and television shows on the online platform Reddit.

Based on a police report reviewed by BBC News, the anonymous individual shared 347 video excerpts of explicit scenes in a subreddit he moderated, which were then viewed 4.2 million times.

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

Legal analysts say the man was prosecuted under a seldom-invoked clause in Danish 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 found guilty of sharing more than 25 terabytes of protected data.

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

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

Per the Denmark's copyright protection group the Rights Alliance, his online community had more than 6,000 subscribers and participants were prompted to request clips of specific actors.

In 2023, campaigners filed the incident to the authorities on behalf of the impacted artists, filmmakers and producers, which resulted in the subreddit being closed down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, one of the performers whose nude scenes were shared in the group, told local media at the period she believed there was a distinction between appearing naked in a movie and being shown on Reddit.

The actress stated the uploads constituted "exploitation".

'A significant message'

The man was arrested in September 2024 and pleaded culpable to the allegations last month.

In a comment after the ruling, TRA head the organization's leader said the decision sent an "significant" message "that infringements of artists' rights has repercussions".

The verdict is viewed as unique in the country for its use of the "ethical protections" clause of the Danish Copyright Act, which specifies an creator's creation cannot be utilized in a way which violates their reputation.

Copyright law specialist a legal scholar told BBC News the legal matter was "unusual" for its emphasis on the harm to the dignity of an artist, rather than to them economically.

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

But she said there may be "more and more of these actions" in the future with the growth of AI, where "the integrity of an individual's work might be tempered with with greater ease".