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A Danish man has been found guilty of uploading sexually explicit scenes from copyrighted movies and television shows on the online platform Reddit.

According to a law enforcement report reviewed by BBC News, the unnamed man shared 347 video excerpts of explicit content in a subreddit he moderated, which were then viewed 4.2 million times.

The country's authorities confirm he has been handed a 7-month deferred jail term for copyright infringement.

Experts explain the man was prosecuted under a rarely-used provision in Denmark's copyright law, with the court finding that by taking the scenes out of their original context, the accused had harmed the artists' "ethical entitlements".

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

From March 2022 to mid-2023, the man known as "KlammereFyr" on Reddit posted sexually explicit scenes featuring over 100 female performers.

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

Per the Denmark's copyright protection group The Rights Alliance (TRA), his subreddit had more than 6,000 members and participants were encouraged to ask for clips of particular actors.

In last year, campaigners reported the case to the authorities on behalf of the impacted actors, directors and producers, which resulted in the subreddit being shut down.

One actress, among the performers whose nude content were circulated in the community, explained to local broadcasters at the time she believed there was a distinction between appearing unclothed in a movie and appearing on Reddit.

The performer stated the uploads amounted to "exploitation".

'A significant signal'

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

In a comment following the verdict, TRA head Maria Fredenslund remarked the decision sent an "significant" message "indicating infringements of artists' rights has repercussions".

The ruling is viewed as unprecedented in the country for its use of the "ethical protections" clause of the national copyright law, which states an artist's work cannot be utilized in a way which violates their reputation.

Intellectual property expert Dr Alina Trapova informed BBC News the case was "rare" for its emphasis on the harm to the dignity of an performer, rather than to them economically.

How the ruling could influence other countries is uncertain.

But she added there may be "more and more of these actions" in the coming years with the growth of AI, where "the integrity of an individual's creative output might be compromised much more easily".