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A Denmark-based citizen has been convicted of sharing sexually explicit scenes from copyrighted films and TV series on the online platform Reddit.

According to a law enforcement report reviewed by media outlets, the anonymous man shared 347 video excerpts of nude content in a Reddit group he moderated, which were then viewed 4.2 million times.

The country's police state he has been handed a seven-month suspended sentence for copyright infringement.

Experts say the man was charged under a seldom-invoked provision in Danish intellectual property legislation, with the judge finding that by removing the scenes out of their original context, the accused had damaged the performers' "ethical entitlements".

He has additionally been convicted of sharing more than 25 terabytes of protected data.

From March 2022 to mid-2023, the man using the alias "the pseudonym KlammereFyr" on Reddit posted sexually explicit clips featuring over 100 actresses.

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

According to the Denmark's anti-piracy group The Rights Alliance (TRA), his subreddit had more than 6,000 subscribers and participants were encouraged to ask for excerpts of specific performers.

In 2023, campaigners reported the case to the authorities on behalf of the impacted actors, filmmakers and producers, which led to the forum being shut down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, among the performers whose explicit content were circulated in the community, told Danish broadcasters at the period she felt there was a distinction between being seen unclothed in a film and being shown on Reddit.

The actress stated the posts constituted "abuse".

'An important message'

The man was detained in fall 2024 and admitted culpable to the allegations recently.

In a comment after the ruling, the head of the Rights Alliance the organization's leader remarked the decision sent an "significant" message "indicating infringements of creators' entitlements have consequences".

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 creation cannot be utilized in a manner which infringes upon their standing.

Copyright law expert a legal scholar informed the media the case was "unusual" for its focus on the harm to the dignity of an artist, rather than to them economically.

How the ruling could affect nations abroad is uncertain.

But she said there may be "an increasing number of such cases" in the coming years with the advancement of AI, where "the sanctity of an individual's creative output might be tempered with with greater ease".