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A Denmark-based man has been found guilty of sharing sexually explicit scenes from protected films and television shows on the social media platform Reddit.

Based on a law enforcement report obtained by BBC News, the anonymous individual posted 347 clips of explicit scenes in a subreddit he moderated, which were then watched 4.2 million times.

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

Legal analysts explain the man was prosecuted under a rarely-used provision in Danish intellectual property legislation, with the judge finding that by taking the scenes out of their original context, the man had harmed the performers' "moral rights".

He has additionally been convicted of distributing more than 25 terabytes of copyrighted data.

From spring 2022 to May 2023, the man known as "KlammereFyr" on Reddit posted sexually explicit scenes featuring over 100 actresses.

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

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

In last year, advocates filed the incident to the police on behalf of the impacted actors, filmmakers and producers, which led to the forum being closed down.

One actress, among the performers whose nude scenes were circulated in the community, told local media at the period she believed there was a difference between appearing naked in a movie and appearing on Reddit.

The actress said the posts amounted to "exploitation".

'An important signal'

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

In a statement following the verdict, the head of the Rights Alliance the organization's leader remarked the decision sent an "significant" signal "that infringements of creators' rights have repercussions".

The ruling is considered unique in the country for its use of the "moral rights" clause of the national copyright law, which states an artist's work cannot be used in a way which infringes upon their reputation.

Copyright law specialist Dr Alina Trapova informed the media the legal matter was "unusual" for its focus on the harm to the dignity of an performer, rather than to them economically.

The extent to which the ruling could influence other countries is unclear.

But she said there may be "an increasing number of such cases" in the coming years with the growth of AI, where "the sanctity of one's creative output might be tempered with much more easily".