🔗 Share this article

A Danish man has been found guilty of sharing nude segments from protected films and TV series on the online platform Reddit.

According to a police report obtained by media outlets, the anonymous man shared 347 video excerpts of nude content in a subreddit he moderated, which were then watched 4.2 million-plus times.

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

Legal analysts explain the defendant was prosecuted under a seldom-invoked provision in Denmark's intellectual property legislation, with the court finding that by removing the footage out of their intended setting, the accused had harmed the performers' "moral rights".

He has also been convicted of sharing more than 25 terabytes of protected digital content.

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

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

According to the Danish anti-piracy group The Rights Alliance (TRA), his online community had more than 6,000 subscribers and users were prompted to request excerpts of specific actors.

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

One actress, among the performers whose explicit scenes were circulated in the group, told local broadcasters at the time she believed there was a difference between being seen naked in a film and being shown on Reddit.

The performer said the posts amounted to "abuse".

'An important signal'

The man was arrested in September 2024 and pleaded culpable to the allegations recently.

In a comment following the ruling, the head of the Rights Alliance the organization's leader remarked the outcome sent an "significant" message "that violations of creators' entitlements have repercussions".

The ruling is considered unique in the country for its use of the "moral rights" section of the Danish Copyright Act, which specifies an artist's work cannot be used in a way which infringes upon their standing.

Intellectual property expert Dr Alina Trapova told BBC News the legal matter was "rare" for its emphasis on the damage to the dignity of an artist, rather than to them economically.

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

But she added there may be "more and more of such cases" in the future with the advancement of AI, where "the integrity of an individual's work might be tempered with much more easily".