🔗 Share this article

A Denmark-based citizen has been found guilty of uploading nude scenes from copyrighted movies and TV series on the social media platform Reddit.

Based on a police document obtained by BBC News, the unnamed individual shared 347 clips of explicit scenes in a Reddit group he moderated, which were then viewed 4.2 million times.

The country's police confirm he has been given a 7-month deferred jail term for violating copyright laws.

Legal analysts say the defendant was prosecuted under a seldom-invoked clause in Denmark's intellectual property legislation, with the judge finding that by taking the scenes out of their original context, the accused had harmed the artists' "moral rights".

He has additionally been convicted of sharing more than 25 terabytes of copyrighted data.

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

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

According to the Denmark's anti-piracy organization the Rights Alliance, his online community had more than 6,000 subscribers and participants were prompted to ask for excerpts of particular performers.

In 2023, campaigners reported the case to the authorities on behalf of the affected actors, directors and producers, which resulted in the subreddit being closed down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, one of the actresses whose explicit scenes were circulated in the community, told Danish media at the period she felt there was a difference between being seen naked in a movie and appearing on Reddit.

The performer stated the posts constituted "abuse".

'An important signal'

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

In a comment following the ruling, TRA head the organization's leader remarked the outcome sent an "significant" signal "that violations of creators' rights has consequences".

The ruling is considered unique in Denmark for its use of the "ethical protections" clause of the Danish Copyright Act, which states an creator's creation cannot be used in a way which violates their reputation.

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

The extent to which the case could influence other countries is uncertain.

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