Danish national man receives suspended sentence for posting explicit film scenes on the social platform Reddit
A Danish citizen has been convicted of uploading sexually explicit segments from copyrighted movies and television shows on the online site Reddit.
Based on a police report obtained by BBC News, the unnamed man shared 347 clips of nude content in a Reddit group he moderated, which were then watched 4.2 million times.
The country's authorities state he has been handed a 7-month deferred jail term for copyright infringement.
Legal analysts say the man was charged under a rarely-used provision in Danish copyright law, with the judge finding that by taking the footage out of their intended setting, the man had harmed the artists' "ethical entitlements".
He has additionally been found guilty of sharing more than 25 TB of protected data.
From spring 2022 to mid-2023, the user known as "KlammereFyr" on Reddit posted sexually explicit clips featuring over 100 female performers.
He distributed them in the forum he was a administrator of.
Per the Danish copyright protection organization The Rights Alliance (TRA), his subreddit had more than 6,000 subscribers and users were prompted to request clips of specific actors.
In 2023, campaigners filed the incident to the police on behalf of the impacted actors, directors and producers, which led to the forum being closed down.
Andrea Vagn Jensen, one of the performers whose explicit content were shared in the community, told local broadcasters at the time she felt there was a difference between appearing unclothed in a film and being shown on Reddit.
The actress said the uploads constituted "abuse".
'An important message'
The defendant was detained in September 2024 and admitted culpable to the allegations recently.
In a comment following the ruling, the head of the Rights Alliance Maria Fredenslund said the outcome sent an "significant" message "indicating infringements of artists' entitlements has consequences".
The verdict is considered unique in the country for its application of the "ethical protections" clause of the national copyright law, which states an creator's work cannot be used in a way which infringes upon their standing.
Intellectual property expert a legal scholar informed the media the case was "rare" for its focus on the damage to the dignity of an performer, rather than to them financially.
How the ruling could affect nations abroad is uncertain.
But she said there may be "an increasing number of these actions" in the future with the growth of artificial intelligence, where "the integrity of one's work might be tempered with with greater ease".
