A Denmark-based man has been found guilty of uploading sexually explicit segments from copyrighted films and TV series on the social media platform Reddit.
Based on a police report reviewed by media outlets, the anonymous man posted 347 video excerpts of nude scenes in a Reddit group he managed, which were then watched 4.2 million-plus times.
Danish police state he has been handed a 7-month deferred sentence for violating copyright laws.
Experts explain the defendant was prosecuted under a rarely-used provision in Danish intellectual property legislation, with the judge finding that by taking the scenes out of their original context, the man had harmed the artists' "moral rights".
He has additionally been found guilty of sharing more than 25 TB of copyrighted data.
From March 2022 to May 2023, the man known as "KlammereFyr" on Reddit posted sexually explicit clips featuring over 100 actresses.
He shared them in the subreddit he was a administrator of.
According to the Danish copyright protection group The Rights Alliance (TRA), his online community had more than 6,000 members and users were prompted to request clips of particular actors.
In last year, advocates reported the case to the police on behalf of the affected artists, filmmakers and producers, which led to the forum being shut down.
Andrea Vagn Jensen, one of the actresses whose explicit content were circulated in the community, told Danish media at the period she felt there was a difference between appearing naked in a movie and being shown on Reddit.
The performer stated the posts amounted to "abuse".
The defendant was detained in September 2024 and admitted guilty to the charges recently.
In a statement after the ruling, the head of the Rights Alliance the organization's leader said the decision sent an "important" message "that violations of artists' entitlements have repercussions".
The verdict is viewed as unprecedented in Denmark for its use of the "moral rights" section of the Danish Copyright Act, which states an artist's work cannot be utilized in a manner which violates their reputation.
Copyright law expert a legal scholar told the media the legal matter was "rare" for its emphasis on the harm to the integrity of an artist, rather than to them financially.
How the case could influence nations abroad is uncertain.
But she added there may be "more and more of such cases" in the coming years with the growth of AI, where "the integrity of one's creative output might be tempered with much more easily".
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