🔗 Share this article

A Danish citizen has been found guilty of sharing nude segments from copyrighted films and television shows on the social media site Reddit.

According to a police report reviewed by media outlets, the unnamed individual shared 347 clips of nude content in a Reddit group he managed, which were then viewed 4.2 million times.

The country's police state he has been given a seven-month suspended jail term for copyright infringement.

Legal analysts say the man was charged under a rarely-used provision in Danish copyright law, with the judge ruling that by taking the scenes out of their original context, the accused had harmed the performers' "ethical entitlements".

He has additionally been found guilty of sharing more than 25 TB of protected digital content.

From March 2022 to May 2023, the man using the alias "the pseudonym KlammereFyr" on Reddit posted adult scenes featuring over 100 female performers.

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

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

In 2023, advocates reported the incident to the police on behalf of the impacted artists, directors and production companies, which led to the forum being shut down.

One actress, among the actresses whose nude scenes were shared in the group, told local media at the time 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 signal'

The man was arrested in fall 2024 and admitted guilty to the allegations last month.

In a statement after the verdict, TRA head the organization's leader said the outcome sent an "significant" signal "indicating violations of artists' rights has repercussions".

The ruling is considered unique in Denmark for its application of the "ethical protections" clause of the national copyright law, which states an creator's creation cannot be utilized in a way which violates their reputation.

Copyright law expert a legal scholar informed BBC News the legal matter was "rare" for its focus on the harm to the integrity of an artist, rather than to them economically.

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

But she said there may be "more and more of these actions" in the coming years with the advancement of AI, where "the integrity of one's creative output might be compromised with greater ease".