Danish national individual receives deferred prison term for distributing nude movie scenes on Reddit
A Denmark-based man has been found guilty of sharing nude scenes from copyrighted films and TV series on the online site Reddit.
According to a police document reviewed by BBC News, the unnamed individual shared 347 video excerpts of explicit scenes in a Reddit group he managed, which were then viewed 4.2 million-plus times.
Danish police state he has been handed a 7-month deferred jail term for copyright infringement.
Experts say the man was prosecuted under a rarely-used clause in Denmark's intellectual property legislation, with the court ruling that by removing the footage out of their original context, the man had harmed the performers' "ethical entitlements".
He has also been found guilty of sharing more than 25 TB of copyrighted digital content.
From spring 2022 to May 2023, the man using the alias "the pseudonym KlammereFyr" on Reddit posted sexually explicit scenes featuring over 100 actresses.
He distributed them in the subreddit he was a moderator of.
Per the Denmark's anti-piracy group The Rights Alliance (TRA), his subreddit had more than 6,000 subscribers and users were encouraged to request excerpts of specific actors.
In 2023, campaigners reported the case to the police on behalf of the affected artists, filmmakers and producers, which led to the forum being shut down.
One actress, among the performers whose nude scenes were shared in the group, told Danish media at the time she believed there was a difference between being seen naked in a film and appearing on Reddit.
The performer stated the posts amounted to "abuse".
'An important message'
The man was detained in September 2024 and admitted guilty to the allegations recently.
In a comment after the ruling, the head of the Rights Alliance the organization's leader remarked the decision sent an "significant" signal "that violations of artists' entitlements has consequences".
The ruling is viewed as unprecedented in the country for its use of the "moral rights" section of the national copyright law, which specifies an creator's work cannot be used in a way which infringes upon their standing.
Copyright law specialist a legal scholar told BBC News the legal matter was "unusual" for its focus on the harm to the dignity of an artist, rather than to them financially.
The extent to which the case could influence nations abroad 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 with greater ease".