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A Danish man has been convicted of sharing sexually explicit segments from copyrighted movies and television shows on the online platform Reddit.

According to a law enforcement report obtained by media outlets, the unnamed man shared 347 clips of nude scenes in a subreddit he moderated, which were then watched 4.2 million times.

The country's authorities state he has been given a seven-month suspended sentence for violating copyright laws.

Experts explain the defendant was prosecuted under a seldom-invoked provision in Denmark's intellectual property legislation, with the judge finding that by removing the footage out of their original context, the accused had harmed the performers' "ethical entitlements".

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

From March 2022 to May 2023, the man known as "the pseudonym KlammereFyr" on Reddit posted adult clips featuring over 100 female performers.

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

Per the Danish copyright protection group The Rights Alliance (TRA), his subreddit had more than 6,000 members and users were prompted to ask for clips of particular performers.

In 2023, advocates filed the incident to the police on behalf of the impacted artists, filmmakers and production companies, which resulted in the subreddit being shut down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, one of the performers whose nude content were circulated in the community, explained to local broadcasters at the period she felt there was a distinction between being seen unclothed in a film and being shown on Reddit.

The actress said the uploads constituted "exploitation".

'A significant signal'

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

In a comment after the ruling, TRA head Maria Fredenslund said the outcome sent an "significant" signal "that infringements of artists' rights have consequences".

The ruling is considered unique in Denmark for its application of the "moral rights" clause of the Danish Copyright Act, which specifies an creator's work cannot be utilized in a manner which violates their standing.

Intellectual property specialist a legal scholar informed BBC News the case was "rare" for its focus on the harm to the dignity of an performer, rather than to them economically.

How the ruling could influence other countries is unclear.

But she added there may be "more and more of these actions" in the coming years with the growth of AI, where "the sanctity of an individual's work might be tempered with much more easily".