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A Danish citizen has been convicted of uploading nude scenes from copyrighted movies and television shows on the social media platform Reddit.

Based on a police document reviewed by media outlets, the unnamed individual posted 347 clips of explicit content in a subreddit he managed, which were then viewed 4.2 million-plus times.

The country's police confirm he has been handed a seven-month suspended jail term for violating copyright laws.

Experts explain the defendant was charged under a seldom-invoked provision in Denmark's copyright law, with the court finding that by taking the scenes out of their original context, the accused had damaged the performers' "moral rights".

He has also been found guilty of sharing more than 25 TB of protected data.

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

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

According to the Denmark's anti-piracy group The Rights Alliance (TRA), his subreddit had more than 6,000 subscribers and participants were prompted to ask for excerpts of particular actors.

In last year, advocates filed the case to the police on behalf of the impacted actors, directors and producers, which led to the subreddit being shut down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, one of the performers whose explicit content were shared in the community, told local broadcasters at the period she felt there was a distinction between appearing naked in a film and appearing on Reddit.

The actress said the uploads amounted to "abuse".

'An important message'

The defendant was detained in September 2024 and admitted culpable to the charges last month.

In a statement after the ruling, TRA head Maria Fredenslund said the outcome sent an "important" signal "indicating violations of creators' rights has consequences".

The verdict is viewed as unique in the country for its use of the "moral rights" clause of the Danish Copyright Act, which specifies an creator's work cannot be used in a manner which infringes upon their reputation.

Copyright law expert a legal scholar told BBC News the legal matter was "unusual" for its focus on the damage to the dignity of an artist, 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 one's creative output might be compromised with greater ease".