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A Danish citizen has been convicted of uploading sexually explicit segments from protected films and TV series on the online site Reddit.

Based on a police report obtained by media outlets, the anonymous individual posted 347 video excerpts of nude scenes in a subreddit he managed, which were then watched 4.2 million times.

The country's authorities state he has been handed a seven-month deferred sentence for copyright infringement.

Experts say the man was prosecuted under a rarely-used provision in Denmark's copyright law, with the judge ruling that by removing the footage out of their intended setting, the man had damaged the artists' "moral rights".

He has also been found guilty of distributing more than 25 TB of copyrighted data.

From spring 2022 to mid-2023, the user known as "KlammereFyr" on Reddit uploaded sexually explicit scenes featuring over 100 female performers.

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

Per the Danish anti-piracy organization the Rights Alliance, his online community had more than 6,000 members and users were prompted to request clips of specific actors.

In last year, advocates reported the incident to the authorities on behalf of the impacted actors, filmmakers and producers, which led to the forum being shut down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, among the actresses whose nude scenes were shared in the group, told local media at the period she believed there was a distinction between appearing unclothed in a film and appearing on Reddit.

The performer stated the uploads constituted "abuse".

'A significant message'

The defendant was arrested in fall 2024 and admitted guilty to the allegations last month.

In a statement following the ruling, the head of the Rights Alliance the organization's leader remarked the outcome sent an "important" message "indicating violations of creators' entitlements have repercussions".

The ruling is considered unprecedented in the country for its application of the "moral rights" clause of the Danish Copyright Act, which specifies an artist's creation cannot be utilized in a way which infringes upon their reputation.

Copyright law specialist a legal scholar told BBC News the legal matter was "unusual" for its emphasis on the harm to the dignity of an artist, rather than to them economically.

How the case could influence other countries is uncertain.

But she added there may be "an increasing number of these actions" in the coming years with the growth of AI, where "the sanctity of an individual's creative output might be tempered with with greater ease".