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A Denmark-based man has been found guilty of sharing nude scenes from protected movies and TV series on the social media platform Reddit.

According to a police document reviewed by BBC News, the anonymous individual posted 347 video excerpts of nude content in a Reddit group he moderated, which were then watched 4.2 million-plus times.

The country's police state he has been handed a seven-month deferred jail term for violating copyright laws.

Experts explain the man was prosecuted under a seldom-invoked clause in Danish copyright law, with the judge ruling that by removing the footage out of their original context, the accused had damaged the artists' "ethical entitlements".

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

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

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

Per the Danish anti-piracy organization the Rights Alliance, his online community had more than 6,000 subscribers and users were encouraged to ask for excerpts of specific performers.

In last year, campaigners filed the case to the authorities on behalf of the affected artists, filmmakers and producers, which led to the forum being shut down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, among the actresses whose explicit scenes were shared in the group, told local media at the time she felt there was a difference between being seen naked in a film and appearing on Reddit.

The performer said the uploads constituted "exploitation".

'An important signal'

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

In a statement following the verdict, the head of the Rights Alliance the organization's leader said the decision sent an "significant" message "that infringements of artists' entitlements has consequences".

The ruling is considered unprecedented in the country for its application of the "ethical protections" clause of the national copyright law, which specifies an artist's work cannot be used in a way which infringes upon their standing.

Intellectual property specialist Dr Alina Trapova informed BBC News the case was "unusual" for its focus on the damage to the dignity of an performer, 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 an individual's work might be compromised much more easily".