🔗 Share this article

A Denmark-based citizen has been convicted of sharing sexually explicit segments from protected films and television shows on the online platform Reddit.

Based on a police report obtained by BBC News, 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 authorities state he has been given a 7-month suspended jail term for copyright infringement.

Experts explain the man was prosecuted under a rarely-used clause in Danish intellectual property legislation, with the judge ruling that by removing the scenes out of their intended setting, the accused had harmed the artists' "ethical entitlements".

He has also been found guilty of sharing more than 25 terabytes of protected data.

From March 2022 to mid-2023, the user known as "KlammereFyr" on Reddit uploaded sexually explicit scenes including over 100 female performers.

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

According to the Danish copyright protection group the Rights Alliance, his online community had more than 6,000 members and participants were prompted to ask for excerpts of specific actors.

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

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

The performer said the uploads amounted to "exploitation".

'An important message'

The defendant was arrested in September 2024 and pleaded guilty to the charges last month.

In a comment after the ruling, the head of the Rights Alliance the organization's leader said the decision sent an "significant" message "that infringements of creators' rights has consequences".

The verdict is viewed as unprecedented in Denmark for its use of the "ethical protections" section of the Danish Copyright Act, which specifies an artist's creation cannot be used in a manner which infringes upon their reputation.

Intellectual property expert a legal scholar told the media the legal matter was "rare" for its focus on the harm to the dignity of an artist, rather than to them financially.

The extent to which the case could affect nations abroad is unclear.

But she said there may be "an increasing number of such cases" in the future with the growth of AI, where "the integrity of an individual's creative output might be tempered with much more easily".