🔗 Share this article

A Danish citizen has been convicted of sharing sexually explicit scenes from protected movies and TV series on the social media platform Reddit.

Based on a police report obtained by BBC News, the anonymous man posted 347 video excerpts of explicit scenes in a Reddit group he moderated, which were then watched 4.2 million times.

Danish police confirm he has been handed a seven-month suspended jail term for copyright infringement.

Experts explain the defendant was prosecuted under a rarely-used clause in Danish copyright law, with the judge finding that by removing the scenes out of their intended setting, the man had harmed the performers' "moral rights".

He has also been convicted of distributing more than 25 TB of copyrighted digital content.

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

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

Per the Denmark's copyright protection organization The Rights Alliance (TRA), his subreddit had more than 6,000 members and participants were prompted to request excerpts of particular performers.

In 2023, campaigners reported the case to the police on behalf of the impacted actors, directors and producers, which resulted in the subreddit being shut down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, one of the performers whose nude scenes were shared in the group, told Danish media at the time she believed there was a distinction between being seen naked in a film and being shown on Reddit.

The actress said the uploads constituted "abuse".

'An important signal'

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

In a statement after the verdict, the head of the Rights Alliance the organization's leader remarked the outcome sent an "important" signal "indicating infringements of artists' entitlements have repercussions".

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

Copyright law specialist Dr Alina Trapova informed the media the legal matter was "rare" for its emphasis on the harm to the dignity of an artist, rather than to them economically.

How the ruling could influence nations abroad is uncertain.

But she added 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".