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

According to a police document obtained by BBC News, the anonymous man posted 347 clips of nude 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 seven-month suspended sentence for copyright infringement.

Legal analysts explain the defendant was prosecuted under a seldom-invoked clause in Danish intellectual property legislation, with the court ruling that by removing the scenes out of their original context, the accused had harmed the artists' "moral rights".

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

From March 2022 to mid-2023, the man known as "KlammereFyr" on Reddit uploaded adult scenes featuring over 100 female performers.

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

Per the Danish anti-piracy organization the Rights Alliance, his online community had more than 6,000 subscribers and participants were encouraged to ask for excerpts of specific performers.

In last year, campaigners filed the incident to the authorities on behalf of the impacted artists, directors and producers, which led to the forum being closed down.

One actress, among the performers whose explicit content were shared in the community, explained to local media at the time she felt there was a distinction between appearing unclothed in a movie and being shown on Reddit.

The performer said the uploads amounted to "exploitation".

'An important message'

The man was detained in September 2024 and pleaded guilty to the allegations last month.

In a statement following the ruling, the head of the Rights Alliance the organization's leader said the decision sent an "significant" message "indicating infringements of creators' rights has consequences".

The verdict is considered unprecedented in the country for its application of the "moral rights" clause of the national copyright law, which states an artist's creation cannot be utilized in a manner which infringes upon their standing.

Copyright law expert Dr Alina Trapova informed BBC News the legal matter was "rare" for its emphasis on the harm to the dignity of an performer, rather than to them economically.

How the ruling could influence nations abroad is unclear.

But she added there may be "more and more of such cases" in the future with the advancement of artificial intelligence, where "the sanctity of an individual's creative output might be tempered with with greater ease".