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A Danish man has been convicted of sharing sexually explicit segments from protected movies and TV series on the online site Reddit.

According to a police report obtained by BBC News, the unnamed individual shared 347 clips of nude scenes in a subreddit he moderated, which were then viewed 4.2 million times.

Danish police confirm he has been given a seven-month deferred sentence for violating copyright laws.

Legal analysts explain the man was prosecuted under a rarely-used clause in Denmark's intellectual property legislation, with the judge finding that by removing the scenes out of their intended setting, the accused had damaged the artists' "ethical entitlements".

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

From spring 2022 to mid-2023, the user using the alias "the pseudonym KlammereFyr" on Reddit uploaded sexually explicit scenes featuring over 100 actresses.

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

Per the Denmark's copyright protection organization the Rights Alliance, his subreddit had more than 6,000 subscribers and participants were encouraged to ask for clips of particular performers.

In last year, campaigners reported the incident to the police on behalf of the impacted actors, filmmakers and producers, which resulted in the subreddit being shut down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, among the performers whose nude content were circulated in the community, explained to local broadcasters at the time she believed there was a difference between being seen unclothed in a film and appearing on Reddit.

The actress stated the uploads amounted to "abuse".

'A significant signal'

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

In a statement after the verdict, the head of the Rights Alliance the organization's leader remarked the outcome sent an "important" signal "indicating violations of creators' rights have consequences".

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

Copyright law expert a legal scholar told the media the legal matter was "rare" for its emphasis on the harm to the integrity of an performer, rather than to them economically.

How the case could affect nations abroad is unclear.

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