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A Denmark-based man has been convicted of sharing nude scenes from copyrighted films and television shows on the social media platform Reddit.

Based on a police document obtained by media outlets, the anonymous man shared 347 clips of explicit scenes in a subreddit he managed, which were then watched 4.2 million times.

The country's police state he has been handed a 7-month suspended jail term for violating copyright laws.

Legal analysts explain the man was charged under a rarely-used provision in Denmark's intellectual property legislation, with the judge ruling that by removing the footage out of their intended setting, the accused had harmed the artists' "ethical entitlements".

He has also been found guilty of distributing more than 25 terabytes of protected digital content.

From spring 2022 to mid-2023, the user using the alias "the pseudonym KlammereFyr" on Reddit uploaded adult scenes including over 100 female performers.

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

Per the Danish anti-piracy group The Rights Alliance (TRA), his online community had more than 6,000 subscribers and participants were prompted to request clips of particular performers.

In last year, advocates filed the incident to the police on behalf of the affected actors, directors and production companies, which resulted in the forum being closed down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, one of the actresses whose explicit scenes were circulated in the community, told local media at the period she felt there was a difference between appearing naked in a movie and appearing on Reddit.

The performer said the uploads constituted "abuse".

'A significant message'

The defendant was arrested in fall 2024 and pleaded culpable to the charges last month.

In a comment after the verdict, TRA head the organization's leader remarked the decision sent an "important" message "indicating infringements of creators' rights has consequences".

The ruling is viewed as unprecedented in the country for its application of the "ethical protections" clause of the national copyright law, which specifies an creator's creation cannot be utilized in a way which infringes upon their standing.

Copyright law expert a legal scholar told BBC News the case was "rare" for its emphasis on the damage to the integrity of an performer, rather than to them financially.

The extent to which the case could influence other countries 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 work might be compromised much more easily".