Danish national individual given suspended sentence for posting explicit movie scenes on Reddit
A Denmark-based man has been convicted of uploading nude scenes from copyrighted films and TV series on the social media platform Reddit.
Based on a police document obtained by BBC News, the unnamed man shared 347 clips of explicit content in a subreddit he moderated, which were then viewed 4.2 million-plus times.
Danish authorities confirm he has been handed a 7-month deferred jail term for copyright infringement.
Legal analysts explain the defendant was prosecuted under a seldom-invoked clause in Denmark's intellectual property legislation, with the judge ruling that by taking the scenes out of their intended setting, the accused had harmed the artists' "moral rights".
He has additionally been found guilty of distributing more than 25 terabytes of protected data.
From March 2022 to May 2023, the man using the alias "the pseudonym KlammereFyr" on Reddit uploaded adult clips featuring over 100 female performers.
He distributed them in the subreddit he was a administrator of.
Per the Denmark's anti-piracy group The Rights Alliance (TRA), his subreddit had more than 6,000 members and participants were prompted to request clips of particular actors.
In last year, campaigners filed the incident to the authorities on behalf of the impacted artists, filmmakers and producers, which resulted in the forum being closed down.
One actress, one of the performers whose nude scenes were circulated in the community, explained to local media at the time she believed there was a difference between being seen naked in a film and being shown on Reddit.
The actress stated the uploads constituted "abuse".
'An important message'
The man was detained in fall 2024 and admitted guilty to the allegations last month.
In a comment following the ruling, the head of the Rights Alliance Maria Fredenslund said the outcome sent an "important" signal "indicating infringements of artists' entitlements has repercussions".
The ruling 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.
Intellectual property specialist a legal scholar informed BBC News the case was "unusual" for its emphasis on the harm to the dignity of an performer, rather than to them economically.
How the case could influence other countries is unclear.
But she said there may be "more and more of such cases" in the coming years with the advancement of artificial intelligence, where "the sanctity of an individual's creative output might be compromised with greater ease".
